TMI and TID highschool
by vibooklover
Summary: This is an AU story in which the TMI and TID characters go to highschool! I'm really bad at summaries, sorry. Basically the will be most of the main ships, different POVs, and if you review, then please put in what you want to happen in the next chapter! Rated T for some mild swearing and some unpleasant subjects, won't be too descriptive with those though.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! Firstly, this is my first real fanfic ever, I've only done an one-shot before. So, this is a mix between TMI and TID,** __ **maybe with a hint of TDA. This is an AU story, basically all the characters are in high school, since there are so few of these stories with both TID and TMI characters.**

 **The ships in this story are mainly going to be (MIGHT BE A LITTLE SPOILER-Y IDK) Clace, Sizzy, Malec, Wessa, Gabrily, Sideon, Jem/OC (I personally prefer Wessa even though Jessa is cute, but I'm going to try really hard to come up with a good character, I already have some ideas), and some other ships that there will be a hint of are Jaia, Heline, and Blackstairs, but if you want me to include a ship then put it in the reviews and I'll consider it! In this story the characters are 16-17, so they are in 10th grade (right?)**

 **Rating: I'm going to rate this fanfiction T because there will be some scenes that may be a little too "brutal" to be rated K or K+, some may even be rated M because of violence/harrasment of some sort, but I'm not quite sure yet. However, if that is the case then I will warn before anything happens. I also won't be too descriptive with it.**

 **BTW; This story is inspired by 'How One Party Can Change Everything' by brokegirl97, you should definitely read it! Please remember that English is NOT my first language, so I'm really sorry for any errors in the text! I haven't really planned out this story so if you have any suggestions on anything, please put them in the reviews. Sorry for such a long author's note, let's get on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. I only own the plot of this story.**

CLARY POV

Today was Clary's first day of school. Well, technically it wasn't, but since she and her mom just moved to New York City and this was Clary's first day at my new school, Idris High, it kind of was the first day at school. To say she was nervous was an understatement. Clary was really stressed about everything. What if this school would be like the old one? Clary's family used to live in a small city in Montana, but after some... things happened, she and her mom moved to New York.

In her old school, Iclary had been pretty much a loner. She'd had a few friends, but none of who she had been close with. She didn't have the kind of friends who she could talk about anything and everything with, who Clary knew would never judge her.

Clary was sitting in the driver's seat in her car – a grey Alfa Rome Stelvio, which she loved – about to drive to school, but for some reason Clary just couldn't start up the car and drive to school. Was it really normal to be this nervous? _Calm down, you'll be okay. You won't care if people judge you, it's going to be okay._

Clary finally picked up the courage to do it. After all, she would have to face school at one point, even if she didn't want to.

XxXxXxXxXx

Clary had just gotten a map of the school from the principal's office. They had already gotten her schedule via email. Clary walked to my first lesson, English. When she found the right classroom, Clary knocked on the door. It was opened by a tall, slender man with untidy red hair and warm hazel eyes.

"Ah, you must be the new student! Clarissa Morgenstern, is it?" the man asked enthusiastically. Clary flinched a little at the mention of her last name, but luckily no one seemed to notice.

"Yes, but please call me Clary," she told him while he let her inside of the classroom.

"Well Clary, please take a seat beside Mr. Herondale. My name is Henry Branwell, by the way." Clary just nodded and took her seat, which wasn't hard to find, since it was the only seat available. She looked at the boy who the teacher had called Mr. Herondale. He was obviously tall, with broad shoulders and elegant features. He had high cheekbones and deep, violet-blue eyes and black, messy hair. Clary had never been really intrested in boys, but couldn't deny that he was very handsome. He turned towards Clary as she sat down in her chair and Mr. Branwell started talking.

"So, you're the new student. Welcome to Idris High, you must have been really lucky to get in the same school as me. I'm William Herondale, although everyone just calls me Will" the boy said and put his hand out to shake. Clary rolled her eyes, but shaked it anyway.

"Oh, so are you one of those egoistical players that every school has? I'm Clary Morgenstern by the way." The boy – Will – scoffed.

"Oh please, if you think I am a player, then that means you clearly haven't met the rest of the boys in this school. Take my cousin as an example, I personally think he is far more worse than I am, though he claims it is the other way. I don't think we will ever come to an understanding," Will said. Clary just raised her eyebrows, since she couldn't raise just one.

"Maybe I should just move back to Montana," she mumbled, mostly to herself. Clary really didn't know how she could get through this school year, and she'd only met one person yet.

"I highly doubt you want to do that you know, I think you will find this school very intresting. Lots of drama or whatever it is that you girls like. At least, that is what my sister likes. Actually, what subject do you have before lunch?"

Clary quickly checked my schedule and said, "Art, why?"

"Great I'll pick you from the art class right after the lesson, and take you to meet everyone else," Will said, which made Clary smile. Maybe she would make some new friends after all.

"I would love that." she simply said.

"Of course you would, after all, who doesn't love being in the presence of the marvelous William Herondale?" Will said, and winked at the redhead. Clary blushed a little bit, but rolled her eyes and started listening to the teacher.

XxXxXxXxXx

Clary had just exited the art classroom when she bumped into someone, and her books that she was holding fell on the floor. The person she'd bumped into immediately bent down and picked her books for Clary. She saw a flash of black hair, and at first she thought it was Will, but when the person stood up and gave her the books, Clary noticed that it definitely wasn't him. The boy did have black hair, yes, but it wasn't as thick as Will's, nor was it wavy in the way Will's hair was. His hair was straight, and he had black eyes and didn't have as sharp features as Will. He was about the same height as Will, but was more slender.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. Here are your books." The boy apologised as he handed Clary back my books.

"No worries, I probably should watch were I'm going, I was a little lost in my own thoughts."

He looked at me from head to toe quickly before putting on a crooked smirk and saying, "I suppose you're the new kid? I don't remember seeing you here before, and trust me, if I had seen you I would remember those beautiful eyes of yours." Clary didn't know how to respond to that, but of course her stupid blood had to rush to her face and she felt her cheeks redden.

"Um, yeah, I just moved here."

"Cool, well my name is Sebastian Verlac, what's yours?"

"Clary Morgenstern."

"We should probably do something sometime," he said and winked at Clary. Maybe it was just her, but in Clary's head, that sounded kind of creepy. Luckily, she was saved from answering.

"Clary!" she heard Will's voice say from behind. She turned, and saw Will walking towards her with a silver-haired boy. Clary stared at the boy for a few seconds. He really was silver. He was really slender and average-height, maybe a tiny little bit shorter than Will, yet he still moved with the same gracefullness as Will. His hair and eyes were silver, and his skin was pale, although not as pale as Clary's.

"Verlac, what are you doing here?" Will asked, and not very nicely. He was glaring at Sebastian, and when Clary turned back, she saw that he was glaring back at Will.

"Well Herondale, I was just introducing myself to this beautiful lady in front of me, in case you didn't notice." Sebastians voice was filled with so much hate that it almost scared Clary. She didn't like it one bit.

"Will, Clary, let's just go. You can fight with him some other time." The silver boy spoke up for the first time. Will looked back at him, and his eyes softened a bit from the harsh stare that he just a moment ago had pointed towards Sebastian. Anyone could tell that Will would listen to this boy. Then he looked at Clary, and all three of them started walking towards the school cafeteria, leaving Sebastian staing at them.

Clary, Will and the silver-haired boy arrived at the cafeteria, and it was huge! Clary knew this was a big school with about 300 students per grade, but she didn't quite realise how many people that really is.

"Come, we usually sit over here. My name is James by the way, but everyone just calls me Jem." The silver boy, Jem, said. Clary just smiled and nodded. They continued their way through the students to a table with about ten people. Clary sat down next to a boy with messy brown hair, brown eyes and glasses. He also had a black t-shirt with with different chemical formulas that together spelled FRIES. Clary had to admit, she loved the shirt. Jem sat on the other side of the table next to a girl with long black hair that probably reached hair waist. She too seemed to be very tall and slim. Her eyes were a really dark brown, almost black, with gold flecks. Her skin was pale and beautiful, and she had on some beige and light blue eyeshadow that made her eyes pop. She was so strikingly beautiful and Clary envied her. Will sat between Jem and a golden boy. He was absolutely beautiful, there wasn't a better way to describe it. He reminded Clary of a lion. He had thick golden-blonde hair, golden eyes and golden skin. Again, he was a very tall person, but very lean, although you could definitely see his muscles. He had a very angled face with high cheekbones. _Why is everyone here so good-looking?_ Clary thought.

"Well hello everyone, as you can see I have already used my charms on the new student, she is probably going to propose to me tomorrow. Please don't do that though Clary, I think we should get to know each other a little better before we get married." Will said while he winked at Clary, who just snorted.

"Oh Will, leave her alone. She's been in this school for what, for hours, and you're already trying to make her life a nightmare? Poor girl," the black-haired beauty from beside Jem said. "My name is Isabelle Lightwood, but everyone calls me Iz," she said, and smiled at Clary. She smiled back, and Izzy introduced her to everyone at the table. Simon; the nerdy boy next to her. Jordan, a brown-skinned boy with dark curly hair and hazel-green eyes. Maia; a curvy girl with light-brown skin, amber eyes and golden-brown, curly hair. Sophie, a slender girl with dark, hazel eyes. On the other side of the table sat Cecily; Wills little sister, who looked almost excactly like him. She too had black, sleek hair and dark-blue eyes, light skin and high cheekbones. Although, she seemed to be quite small, maybe not as small as Clary, who thought she looked like a twelve-year old, but a little smaller than the average 16-year old girl. Next to Cecily was Alec, Izzys brother, a boy with black hair and blue eyes. Not the same violet-blue as Will's and Cecily's, But more of a deep ocean color. Next to Alec sat the Golden God; Jace. Jace was also a Herondale, so he was Will's and Cecily's cousin from their dad's side.

While talking to them Clary did pick up some intresting stuff. Maia and Jordan were dating; Alec was a year older than the rest of them, so he was a junior. However, apparently the Lightwoods cousins, Gideon and Gabriel Lightwood, were coming back from Madrid in a month or so. Only half of the people at the table had ever met them; this school was very popular and there were usually a lot of new kids at school. Pretty much only Maia, Jordan, the Lightwoods and the Herondales except for Cecily had met them. Gideon and Gabriel, along with their dad, had moved from England to New York about five years ago, then moved to Madrid after two years, and now they were moving back to New York.

Some other stuff she picked up was that Will liked reading classics. Clary never thought someone like him would be intrested in reading, but was positively surprised. Sophie also had a boyfriend, though he didn't attend our school. All the girls were in the cheerleading team, and the boys – yes, even Simon – played football, which was a popular sport at Idris High, that's basically how all of them became friends, too.

Sadly, the lunch break was soon over, and Clary had to go to her next class, which was math. Clary really didn't like math, but luckily wasn't one of those people who had struggles with it, but was actually pretty good at it. When she had taken her books from her locker and turned to go to math class, Clary heard some heels click on the floor and Isabelle said "Clary!" The next second she was walking beside the short redhead and asked, "Do you have math too?" Clary nodded her head yes, and Izzy squealed.

"Great! You can sit next to me, I really could use some help since I don't understand anything."

"That would be awesome! I'm actually pretty relieved people even talk to me," Clary admitted shyly, thinking about how people had mostly ignored her in her old school.

"Seriously? You seem like such a great person, I'm not even kidding. Hey, do you have any activities or anything you like doing?" Izzy asked.

"Well, I do enjoy cheerleading, and I _love_ everything that has to do with art." Clary answered with a smile on her face.

Izzy seemed to get really excited and almost yelled: "That's amazing! You could be in the cheer team with us, it would be so much fun!" Clary hesitated for a moment.

"But isn't it too late for the cheer tryouts now?" It wasn't very late in the school year, quite the opposite, it was only September, but you'd think they would have the team already.

"No, it would be amazing to have someone as small as you, it would help the cheer team so incredibly much, you know." Izzy said, obviously trying to persuade her. Clary had to admit, she did miss cheerleading, she just wasn't always very confident with the outfits.

"I guess I should try it out, I do really miss it. When are the tryouts?"

"Well, since me and Cecily are the team captains, we could do it today after school. You could use some old cheer clothes from last year."

Clary smiled. "Yeah that should be okay," I said as they entered math class.

XxXxXxXxXx

The tryouts had gone very succesfully. After Clary was done, Isabelle and Cacily both looked impressed, and Clary thought she also saw a hint of pride in Isabelle's eyes. Clary had immediately gotten a place in the team.

She was walking back to her car, when she saw a glimpse of gold at the other end of the parking lot. When she looked closer, Clary saw Jace arguing with someone. She didn't recognise the other boy, who had light brown hair and was quite short, at least standing next to Jace. Clary walked towards her car, which was very close to where the boys stood, when the shorter one stormed away. Jace looked annoyed, but then he saw me, and immediately had a smirk plastered on his face. Apparently, it was a Herondale thing.

"Well hello Red."

"Red? That's seriously the best you can come up with?"

"Fine, I'll come up with a better nickname someday." He said, wlking a little closer to her. They were now a few feet apart.

"Whatever. What was that about anyway? The argument, I mean?" Clary asked, curious. She also couldn't believe she was having a pretty normal conversation with Jace, who was the Golden God, who was so stunning while Clary was just a normal girl, Jace, who everone seemed to know, and who every single girl talked about. At least in the girls' bathroom.

"Well I would hardly call it an argument, since that boy was too stupid to even form a simple phrase, let alone argument, against me," Jace said, and his smirk grew a little bigger.

"Herondales," Clary muttered.

"If you really want to know, he was one of Sebastian Verlac's little companions. Do you know who Sebastian is?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Clary was annoyed by that, since she couldn't do it herself.

"Yeah, he tried to talk to me at lunch break, but Will and Jem kind of saved me." At that, Jace's eyes got a little darker, and his smirk was gone.

"I wouldn't trust Sebastian if I were you."

"Well I wasn't excactly planning on becoming besties with him. What has he ever done to you ayway?" Clary asked, maybe sounding a little bitter, though she didn't really know why.

"Oh, trust me, Sebastard wants a lot more than being besties with you. And to answer your question, he has done a lot of things." At that, Clary got a message from her mum asking if Clary was still at school. She had completely forgotten to send her mom a message about the tryouts.

Clary looked up from her phone at Jace, who was still standing at the same spot. "Well, I guess I should listen to you then. I have to go now, so..bye," she said as she turned to her car, got in and drove home. Although, she could've sworn she saw Jace looking at her as she drove away

XxXxXxXxXx

Clary parked her car in front of their house on the driveway. She loved their house. It was a two-storey stone house with big windows. The house itself was a normal size house, but the garden was pretty big. At the front, there was just the driveway and some trees, but the backyard had a lot of different kinds of flowers, trees and even a little stream at the very far end of it. Ever since they'd moved here about a week ago, Clary had come to the backyard to draw something everyday.

Clary entered the house. It already had a lot of her mom's paintings on the wall. It was really spacy, but at the same time cosy. Her mom, Jocelyn, came from the kitchen when she heard the door shut, and smiled at Clary.

"Hi honey, how was school?" She, asked, sounding a little nervous.

"It was really good, I think I like this school much better than the last one," She said smiling. Her mom obviously looked relieved. She must have been worried about what Clary would think of all this.

"Mom, seriously, anywhere is better than with _him_ , this was much better than I expected. I'm so happy we moved here." This seemed to calm her down a little bit.

"I'm so happy Clary, you deserve the best," Jocelyn said and hugged her daugther.

XxXxXxXxXx

It was about 10pm, so Clary showered and read for a little while before she went to sleep. When she closed her eyes, she didn't have any nightmares like she sometimes had had for the last few weeks. Actually, Clary just dreamed of the people she met at school, who would hopefully become her friends.

 **So, that was the first chapter in my new story! Please favorite and review, and tell me: Who's POV would you like to read next? I'll try to write one to three POVs per chapter.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Xx, V**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone! Okay, so since I'm starting to write the second chapter I'll also have more POVs, because since I had to introduce everything in the first chapter, I didn't really have the chance to change POVs. Anyway, here is the second chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. I only own the plot of this story.**

 **Warning: Some part in this may get a little violent, I will try not to be too descriptive though.**

 **Sophie POV**

 ***One week later** *****

Sophie was walking home from school, while talking to her boyfriend, Teddy, on the phone.

"Hey, do you mind me coming over? I really wanna see you," he said in a low tone. Sophie smiled a little. "I would love that," she responded. She didn't really hang out with Teddy that much, so she wouldn't say no to his question. They weren't that much with each other, mainly because they went to different schools, but he also wasn't really social, and didn't want to see Sophie that often. She didn't know what to think about that. Of course she respected that he liked to be alone and didn't want to push him, but sometimes it felt like he just didn't care. Like when he just says 'I don't want to see you today', it kind of hurt. Sometimes it felt like Sophie wasn't even his girldfriend, but she was sure they'd figure it out, or at least she'd get used to it.

When Sophie finally reached her house, she saw his car was parked outside the house, so when she entered, Sophie saw Teddy right in front of her, with a small smile on his face.

"Hey, baby," he murmured, before attacking me with his mouth. At first, Sophie froze. Then, she kissed him lightly back, but Teddy held her by the waist so it hurt, so she broke the kiss after a while.

"Hey, how have you been? I haven't seen you in days.." Sophie said, but trailed off, since he started kissing her jaw and making his way to her neck quickly and forcefully. "Teddy, maybe not now, I wanna talk to you.." "We can talk later," he said while slowly pulling Sophie's shirt up. Not much, but a little bit every few seconds. That's also when she noticed he smelled of alcohol. Sophie didn't really know what to do, so she just pulled away from him, a little harshly. She looked at him for a while. Teddy's eyes were narrowed and unfocused. He seemed to be really drunk, and Sophie have no idea how she didn't notice it earlier.

"Please don't tell me you're _drunk_? Teddy, what have you done? You're not even allowed to drink, you're eighteen for God's sake!" She shouted at him desperately. Teddy didn't seem to notice what Sophie was saying, or maybe he just didn't care. Instead, he took a tight grip on her and slammed Sophie against the wall, so her head hit the hard wood. It hurt. A lot. He tried to unbutton Sophie's jeans, but she managed to wriggle him off of her. He whispered in her ear, "I don't really care. You're mine, and I want you, so here I am." That drove Sophie mad, but it also scared her. "I am _not_ yours, what the hell is wrong with you? Now get off me!" By this time Sophie was super mad. But all he said was, "You're mine. _Mine_. Get it?" It seemed Sophie had frustrated him a bit too. "That's it, we're done. Get out of my house." she said, trying to sound calm even though she felt like hitting him right now. But that' wasn't how it was supposed to be, was it? Why would someone ever want to hit their boyfriend? Although, was someone supposed to be pinning their girlfriend to the wall when they didn't want it? No, probably not.

When Teddy heard what she said, he became absolutely furious. Before Sophie even realised what was happening, Teddy had pulled out a pocket knife and she felt a stinging pain in her left cheek and she cried out in pain, quite loudly. Then, she felt something warm drip down her jaw and chin. Blood. Sophie couldn't focus on anything else than the pain for a moment, but then she heard him whisper, "You will always be mine. And if I can't have you, then no one else can either." After that, he exited the house.

Then it was eerily quiet, except for Sophie's quiet sobs, before she shortly after passed out on the floor from the pain in the head and cheek.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Tessa POV**

Tessa was out taking walk in the neighborhood when she heard shouting from a house. It sounded like an argument. At first, Tessa thought she should just ignore it and continue walking, but then she heard a loud _thump_ and someone screaming, and that's when she stopped dead in her tracks. A few moments later a man exited the house. Tessa couldn't clearly see his face since she wasn't close enough, but anyone could see that he looked angry just by the way he walked. He was also quite muscular, and Tessa doubted he was the one who screamed. She watched as he got in a grey car and drove away, until she couldn't see the car at all.

Tessa frowned, still contemplating about ignoring it. After all, if it was just a normal fight, she doubted they would want her intruding. However, curiousity once again got the best of her, so after a while, Tessa started walking towards the house. She walked up the steps carefully listening if there was any sound coming from the house, but it was deadly quiet. Tessa knocked on the door twice. There were no footsteps, or any other sounds for that matter, coming from the house. She tried the door to find it unlocked, so she gently pushed the door open. When she opened the door fully, Tessa gasped. On the floor in the hall lay a girl with blood all over her face. And not just any girl, because that was Sophie Collins, who went to Tessa's school, they even had a couple of classes together. Sophie lay there, bloody, and apparently unconcious.

Tessa quickly hurried over to her. "Are you okay? Sophie?" Her silence just confirmed her suspicions. Quickly, Tessa took her phone and dialed 911.

XxXxXxXxXx

"Excuse me, miss? Are you here for Sophie Collins?" A doctor came and asked Tessa. She was sitting in the waiting room in the hospital, waiting for any news on Sophie. She'd been there for about an hour now, not knowing what else to do than sit there. She didn't want to just abandon Sophie either.

"Yes, are there any news?" Tessa asked anxiously.

The doctor responded, "Miss Collins has received a cut on her cheek that will remain there as a scar, and she hurt her head, so we will keep her here overnight just to make sure she'll get better. We have already called her parents. Sophie is awake right now, so if you wish to visit her, you may do it," the doctor said and left Tessa sitting there. She didn't know if she should go or not, since she didn't know Sophie personally and didn't want to invade her privacy.

After a while, however, Tessa decided to visit Sophie, and if she didn't want her there, then she would just leave. So I stood up and walked to the room Sophie was in, and knocked before entering.

There, in the completely white hospital room, was Sophie sitting on her bed, with some tears in her eyes.

"Sophie?" Tessa asked carefully, and she turned her head towards her. Sophie's eyebrows rose a little, and then she asked quietly, "Are you the one who found me? And called 911?" She sounded really shy, but Tessa couldn't make out if she was angry at me or not for being there.

"Um, yeah. If you don't want me here then I can leave, just thought I would come and see if you needed everything.." she trailed off. Sophie gave Tessa a weak smile and said, "It's okay, you can stay. That is, if you don't have anywhere to be. I could use someone to talk to," Sophie said looking sad.

"Not at all," Tessa answered with a smile.

She sat down in the chair by the bed and she asked me, "Aren't you Tessa Gray? I think we have some classes together, right?" Sophie asked.

I smiled and answered, "Yeah, that's me. I was just walking around the neighborhood when I heard screams coming from your house, and after that some man drove away from there. If you don't mind me asking, was he the one who gave you the cut?" At first, Sophie looked like she wasn't going to answer, but then she took a deep breath and told me what had happened.

"Yeah, he is – was – my boyfriend. I came home to meet him, and apparently he was drunk or something, which was so weird to me. He...he started to take my clothes off but I pushed him off and screamed at him to leave, he just...oh my God, he just told me that I was his and when I told him we were done and he saw that I wouldn't let him do anything, he took a pocket knife and he...he.." Sophie trailed off, tears coming from her eyes while she clenched them shut. She brought a hand to her face, where she had some white band-aid on her cheek, and started shaking. Carefully, Tessa put her arms around her, and Sophie hugged the other girl tightly with her other hand.

After a while, Tessa pulled back but still held a hand on her shoulder. "Sophie, I promise you it'll get better. You can report him to the police, and if you at any time need any help then I'll be here. Do you want me to call anyone, maybe some of your friends?"

Sophie opened her slightly red eyes and looked at Tessa before saying through her tears, "Please don't, I don't want anyone to see my face. I will look hideous with my huge scar," Sophie said with a I-give-up voice. Tessa shook her head.

"Sophie, you are so beautiful with or without a scar, and I know your friends won't mind. If you don't want me to tell them, then that's fine, but your friends care about you and they'll want to know if something's happened." she said, thinking about how lucky Sophie was. Tessa spent most of her time in the school's huge library and didn't really have any friends, which Sophie was lucky to have. Tessa had seen their friend group in the school yard laughing and talking, and wished she could have the same kind of friendship with someone.

Sophie pulled her out of her reverie when she smiled and said, "Thank you Tessa. For everything. I'm just not ready to face anyone. My parents are away on a business trip, and will be back in a few days, but I already spoke to my mom and she said I could stay home for the rest of the week."

After that, they talked about lighter stuff, like school, movies, etc. A while later, it was time for Tessa to leave, but she promised to bring Sophie her homework when she could go back home.

XxXxXxXxXx

Tessa shut the door behind her, switching on the light in the empty house. It was about 7 pm, so Nate, Tessa's brother, was already out in a bar gambling. She sighed.

After their parents had died, Nate had become Tessa's guardian, but he had also started drinking and gambling almost every night. It was only the huge amount of money that they both had gotten each, plus the money they shared for food and bills, that both of the kids had gotten from their parents when they died, that kept them from not being thrown out on the streets. Well, throwing Nate out on the streets, because Tessa saved her part of the money as much as possible.

If Nate lost a lot of money in gambling , which was quite often, he would come home drunk and, unfortunately, hit her, kick her, just generally beat Tessa. Although it often resulted in her having bruises and maybe a broken rib, it wasn't anything she couldn't deal with. It was quite easy to hide too, since Tessa just put some concealer on the bruises on her face, because no one looked at her closely enough to notice any bruises. That was one of the reasons she didn't have any friends; she avoided people so no one could know the truth. Tessa wasn't sure why excactly she didn't want anyone to know the truth. Maybe it was because she still, deep down, maybe cared a little for her brother. Or maybe she just didn't want to become an orphan. Either way, she'd never told anyone her secret, and didn't really plan to. She would just move far away from here the minute she got the chance, and try to leave all of this behind.

After a few minutes, Tessa lay in bed reading _A Tale Of Two Cities,_ her favorite book of all time. Then she remembered that she should probably get some sleep in case Nate would come home angry in the middle of the night, and Tessa also had school tomorrow. So she put away her book – even though it was very hurd - and thought about Sophie, and if she would be okay.

 **Guys. Do you know how hard it is to write? It seriously takes me several days to write a chapter, and I apologise for that. Now I have two questions:**

 **Firstly, I know I've written this in first person POV, but would it be okay if I wrote it in third person?**

 **Second, how descriptive do you want me to be with some of the themes? If it is descriptive, I would try to warn you before it happens so you can skip it if you wish to?**

 **Please review, it means a lot and helps me think about what to write next!**

 **Xx, V**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! I just wanted to say thankyou to those review I've gotten, which are like four in total, lol. But seriously, the reviews help me so much, I love reading them.**

 **Also, I'm so sorry I suck at updating. I'm a pro procastinator, which means that it takes me several days to write a chapter, and the last week of school was kind of hectic for me, BUT I'M FINALLY FREE FROM SCHOOL! I'm the happiest person alive right now. But Just because I don't have school doesn't mean I don't have other things to do. For example, I'm at our summer cottage A LOT, and I don't have the opportunity to write there. Second, I SAW LITTLE MIX! I went to their concert for the Summer Shout Out Tour and I absolutely loved them!3 Are there any mixers here btw?**

 **So here is chapter three everyone! I hope you enjoy!**

 **Tessa POV**

Tessa was walking to school. Sophie had called her and asked for Tessa to talk to Cecily Herondale and explain to her about the situation, to kind of warn her, but not to tell anyone else. Of course Tessa knew who Cecily Herondale was, but so did everyone else. She was one of the cheerleaders, and was also in Tessa's track & field group and her English class, however, the two didn't really talk, because Cecily was the social butterfly while Tessa mostly kept to herself. It wasn't like she never talked, because Tessa did have smalltalk with her classmates quite often, but she didn't really have friends she would talk to outside of school.

As Tessa entered school, she was so lost in her own thoughts she accidentally bumped into someone and dropped a few books.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I sould've watched where I was going," Tessa rambled as she knelt down and picked up the books. When she stood back up, Tessa saw who she'd bumped into. It was a short girl with flaming red hair, freckles everywhere and stunning green eyes.

The girl smiled at Tessa and said a little sheepisly, "Thank you. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you like that. I'm just new here and was searching where to go for my next class."

Tessa smiled and asked, "What class do you have next?"

The girl had a grim face and said, "History with Mr. Starkweather." Tessa had to admit, she didn't like history that much either, but she smiled since she, too, had history.

"Me too, I can show you to your class if you'd like."

"That would be amazing, thank you. I'm Clary by the way."

"Tessa," she said as they walked towards the history classroom.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Cecily POV**

"Ugh. Seriously Sophie?" Cecily muttered to herself as she put her phone in her backpack. She'd tried to call Sophie at least five times that day to ask where she was, but just her luck, Sophie didn't answer. No one else knew either where she was. Cecily was in the girls' changing room, about to get ready for track and field, when she heard someone say her name. Cecily spun around and was met by a girl from her team, Tessa. Cecy smiled at her.

"Hey, what is it?" Tessa looked a little nervous.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you? It's kind of important.."

She was cut off when our trainer came to the room and everyones' heads snapped towards her while she yelled, "Everyone hurry up! We have to train extra for the competition next week!" and people started to hurry with putting their bags into the lockers.

Cecily turned back to Tessa and smiled. "Can we talk after practice instead?"

Tessa smiled and said, "Yeah, sure."

XxXxXxXxXx

Cecily was about to go and talk to Tessa since the practice had ended when she heard her brother shout her name. When she looked back, she saw Will running towards her. He'd just had football practice and was going to drive the two of them home. "Will, I'll meet you at the car! I have to talk to someone real quick!" Will furrowed his brows, but shrugged and turned on his heel and started walking towards the parking lot. Cecily continued walking towards Tessa.

"Hey Tessa, do you mind if we walk to the parking lot as we talk?" Cecily asked Tessa. "My brother's waiting for me," she said when she reached Tessa, who was packing her bag and putting her jacket on. She didn't mind, so they started walking.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Cecily asked curiously. Tessa looked a little nervous and uncomfortable.

"Well, I don't really know how I should say it, but it's about Sophie.."

"Did something happen? Do you know her?" Cecily asked, a little alarmed. She didn't know Tessa and Sophie knew each other.

"I mean, we've talked occasionally, but we're not friends excactly. But, um, anyway, Sophie was in an accident – well actually, not an accident, but something similar. Okay, so Spohie asked me to tell you this, but she's not ready for everyone to know. So can you keep quiet about it?" Cacily nodded, wanting for Tessa to continue since she was getting really worried.

"So yesterday, I was walking in the neighborhood when I heard a scream from Sophie's house." Tessa told her. "A moment later someone, who turned out to be Sophie's boyfriend, came out from the house, and he looked really angry."

"Wait, her boyfriend? Teddy?" Cecily asked confused.

"Well if that''s what his name is, then yes," Tessa said. "Well, technically he's her ex-boyfriend now. Anyway, he stormed off, and when he was gone, I went to check if something had happened. I knocked, but no one answered, so I opened the door. In the hall, Sophie was unconcious on the floor with blood all over her face." Cecily gasped, blood running cold. Surely Teddy couldn't have done that? Sophie always talked about how sweet Teddy was to her. Tessa looked at Cecily with worry in her eyes before continuing.

"I called 911, and waited in the hospital when the doctors checked her. Apparently, she hit her head, and her ex-boyfriend had drawn a cut on her left cheek, from her lip to her temple. And Sophie's so scared now, because she's going to have a permanent cut on her cheek. Since I knew what had happened anyway, she asked me to tell you, but not to tell anyone else. She's also not really ready to meet any of her friends, but she could call you today."

After Tessa stopped talking, Cecily didn't know what to think. She wanted to be there for Sophie, but how could she, if Sophie wanted to be left alone? Cecily turned to Tessa. "Thank you for telling me, I really appreciate it." Tessa smiled at her.

"I'm sure Sophie will want to talk to you soon, she just seemed really scared of what people are going to say." Tessa seemed so nice, genuine. Cecily nodded and changed the subject to get her mind off Sophie, even though she was worried about her. They had a bit of smalltalk, until she asked for Tessa's help.

"Hey, I know this is super random, but you're good at English, right? At least, that's what I've heard. " Tessa and Cecily didn't have the same English class, but she really needed help with an essay.

"Um, I guess I'm not too bad," she said furrowing her brows.

"Great! Could you please help me with this essay that we have to write in my class?" Cecily asked. "Essays really aren't my strong point, and I could really use some help, but my brother, Will refuses to help me, even though he's really good at that stuff." she scoffed.

"Sure, no problem. Is after school tomorrow okay?"

"That's perfect. Meet me in the locker hall after school tomorrow then. I really have to go now, so bye," Cecily said as she waved to Tessa and went to the car.

During the whole ride home though, she just couldn't get Sophie off her head. She was worried about her, since Sophie was one of her closest friends. When Cecily got home she went to her room to take a nap, which ended up in her sleeping for the rest of the day.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV (The next day)**

Clary was walking to her next class, with Isabelle. She was one of those bubbly, popular girls who absolutely loved shopping, no joke. She talked about fashion so often, but Clary didn't really mind, because she was also really lovely and it was nice to have someone to talk to.

"So, I heard your cousins are moving here. Are they coming to this school?" she asked Izzy, as she was called.

"Yes, Gideon and Gabriel, " Izzy said. "Gabriel's in our year, but Gideons actually a year older. However, they were homeschooled at the same time, and Gideon ended uplearning excactly the same stuff as Gabriel, so he's going to be in our grade when he comes here. Their dad apparently wanted them to continue with homeschooling, but Gideon and Gabriel apparently didn't like the idea," she mused.

"What about their mom?" Izzy's face immediately turned grim and Clary realized she probably should have kept quiet instead of being nosy.

"Sorry, I probably shouldn't have asked.."

"No, seriously, it's fine." Izzy assured. "We just don't talk about it a lot. Their mom got lung cancer and died when me and Gabriel were 7. It was really hard for all of us, because we used to see each other a lot as kids, but it was especially hard for their dad. He just got a lot more strict and never really did anything with his sons, and then they suddenly moved to Madrid." I nodded, and we let the subject go.

When they turned around the corner, Clary could see the dark-haired boy from last week, who also had talked to her a few times after that. _Sebastian,_ she thought. He was leaning against the wall next to the door that lead to the math classroom, where Izzy and Clary were going. When he saw them, he smirked and pushed himself off the wall and waited for them to come. Clary just ignored him and walked right past him – or at least tried to, because Sebastian grabbed her left arm when she was supposed to enter class. Isabelle also stopped when she noticed Clary wasn't walking next to her anymore. She turned around, and immediately glared at Sebastian, though Clary didn't understand why. She didn't like Sebastian, but she also didn't really get why everyone seemed to hate him so much.

But when Sebastian grabbed her arm, she felt like she'd faint right there. Not because of the pain, but the horrid memories that hid touch triggered. Clary froze instantly at his touch, but he didn't seem to notice, for he was looking at Isabelle.

"Something on my face, miss Lightwood?" Sebastian asked her.

"Yeah, a big nose and a mouth that rarely says something people actually want to hear," Isabelle responded with venom in her voice. Sebastian sighed, then turned to Clary. He leaned toward her so his lips were just next to her ear.

"You look really good today Clary, as you always do. We should go out sometime," he whispered, and then let go of her arm and walked away like he just hadn't acted like a creep. Well, at least in Clary's mind he acted like a creep.

"Clary, are you alright? You look a little pale," Isabelle said. Clary was pulled out of her reverie and tried to relax, because her body was tense and she could still feel Sebastian's grip on her arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Clary said, although she wasn't too sure about that herself. "I just didn't sleep very well." This seemed to convince Isabelle, at least enough for her to drop the subject. Clary, however, couldn't stop thinking about all the her so called father had gripped her by the arm, or around the neck. So she focused on breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth, ecause there was no way she would get a panic attack here, in school, in the middle of the day. She focused on rubbing her hands with her thumbs, like she always did to calm herself down. _Stay calm, no one's going to hurt you,_ she repeated to herself as class started. Eventually, after a while she was able to completely calm down and continue normally with the lesson. Isabelle sent her a little worried look, but started then talking to Magnus Bane, whom Clary didn't know, but apparently planned all the outfits for the cheer team.

When school ended, Clary was extremely thankful and wanted nothing more than to go home.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Cecily POV**

Cecily was in the hall, waiting for Tessa to come. Will had already gone off to the car with Jem, who pretty much lived with the Herondales. Not that anyone had anything against it, because it was hard _not_ to love Jem. Ever since the thing with Ella, Jem had been one of the few people who were able to cause a smile on Will's face. Cecily didn't kknow if she liked that or not. Obviously she was happy that Will had someone like Jem, but it was a bit upsetting when Cecily was never able to make Will laugh

"Cecily?" she heard Tessa say from behind. She turned, and saw her, tall with black jeans and a dark blue sweater on, carrying a black fabric bag over her shoulder with all her books, and her hair in a messy bun. She smiled at Cecily. "Hey, should we go?"

"Yeah, let's go. My brother and his friend, Jem, are already in the car."

"Okay," Tessa said and smiled at Cecily. "Isn't your brother in the same grade as you?" she asked after a small pause.

"Well yeah, but we're not twins or anything," Cecily explained. "Will was born in January, and I was born February the next year. However, when we moved here from Wales when I was four and Will five years old, We weren't really good with English so instead of going to normal daycare, we just had a babysitter who was also a teacher and so we ended up going to the same grade when we finally started school. Luckily, we only share two classes so he doesn't have to get on my nerves all the time." She added with a small laugh.

They reached the car, where the boys were already waiting. When they were inside, Jem turned and smiled at Tessa.

"Oh, hi Tessa, I didn't know you were the one who's going to help Cecy with her essay," he said.

"Oh, Tessa Gray, is it?" Will asked while looking at her in the rearview mirror. "You're always in the library during the breaks, aren't you?" Tessa seemed a little surprised at this, but quickly recovered.

"Yes, I am. I didn't anyone would pay attention to that though," Tessa replied. Will grinned at her.

It

"But I _am_ the magnificent Will Herondale, I know everything and everyone," he said and Tessa blushed.

"Oh my God Will, that makes you sound like a stalking teenage girl," Cecily pointed out., to which jem and Tessa laughed.

"But I'm _much_ more handsome than you, darling sister," Will said with a smirk.

"I am _not_ a stalking teenage girl!" Cecily gasped.

"Please, remember when you were on your phone and.." Will started, but Jem cut him off.

"Okay William, let's spare little Cecily here," he said, and Cecily glared at both of the boys. The rest of the ride Will seemed pretty...intrested in Tessa and they talked about many of the books they'd both read. At first it was quite a friendly chat, however, when particular book came up, a small argument stood up.

"Come on, _A Tale of Two Cities_ isn't _nearly_ as good as some people say. I don't see how you can like that book," Will argued with Tessa. Tessa looked mildly schocked t what she heard.

" _Excuse me,_ that book will always remain as my favorite book! It is such a beautiful story, you just have to learn to appreciate these kinds of books." They continued arguing for a few minutes, but then they luckily arrived at the Herondale's house.

It was a big house, at least bigger than what a family of four would need, but Cecy loved it. They had an old, white shingle style house with a black roof, a wide round porch around the main entrance and a terrace that went along the front ide of the house. In front of the house was a garage and a driveway with a water fountain in the center, and around the fountain was different types of flowers that Cecily's mom, Linette, loved to take care of. There were much more flowers in the backyard, were they also had benches and fairylights hanging from the trees, which had been Cecily's idea.

Although Cecily preffered the outside part of the house, the inside was just as beutiful too. It was still old-looking, yet bright. The floor was a dark wood, and the walls in the house were mostly white, spare for the walls in the bedrooms. When you entered the house, you were met by a hall that led to a wide staircase. The dining room to the right had huge windows, as well as a black table and chairs and was connected to a big, white kitchen with marble tops. To the left was the living room. It had a high ceiling and big windows like in the dining room, where you could see some of the trees at the edge of the garden. At the wall in front of the living room entrance was a grey stone frieplace, and at the wall to the right were some paintings and a shelf with different decorations. There was a big beige L-shaped couch in the middle of the room, and two armchairs in the same colour. At the other end of the living room, as well as the kitchen, were two doors. The one in the living room led to the library, and the one in the kitchen led to the utility room, which in turn led to the training room, which had it's own shower and sauna. In the training room was another door that led to the backyard.

When they got inside, Cecily quickly took Tessa's hand and dragged her up the stairs into the big living room-type room that went around the staircase opening, with a gray loveseat and armchair, as well as a TV. At the opposite end of the staircase opening was a door that led into the hall where everyone's bedrooms were. Cecilys room was to the left in that hall. It had three white walls and a lavender-coloured one to the left when you opened the door. Against the purple wall was a queen-size bed with a white bedspread, and to the opposite wall from the door a big window were you could see the driveway and the street from. To the right was a vanity and a white wardrobe, And the wall where the door was held a dresser and a body-length mirror with pictures of Cecily and her friends and family. It was quite clear that Cecily was a 'girly girl', and also very messy; there were a lot of light-coloured, flowy clothes on the bed, and lots of haircare- and makeup products on the vanity. On the dresser were schoolbooks and different chargers for phone, laptop, and camera.

Cecily took her laptop and some notes the teacher had given them about the essay, and so she and Tessa started working.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Tessa POV**

Tessa was reading through Cecily's essay. After a few hours of work and some snack Cecily's mom had brought the girls, Cecily's essay was finally done and she seemed proud of her work, which she had every right to be.

"You're definitely going to get a good grade from this essay, it's actually really good," Tessa said to Cecily. "I like how you've included different views of the same subject..." she trailed off when she heard she got a message. She checked her her phone, and noticed she had gotten a message from Sophie. She quickly read it, then smiled and turned to Cecily. "Would you like to go to Sophie's?"

"What? Right now?" Cecily asked.

"Yes, she wanted me to take you there. That is, if you're okay with it," Tessa said. Cecily beamed and was already running out of her room, with Tessa closely behind her. When they got outside, they took Cecily's car – a black BMW - and quickly drove over to Sophie's.

When they finally reached her house Tessa had barely time to unbuckle her seatbelt before Cecily was already out of the car and knocking on Sophie's door. Tessa quickly got out of the car and followed Cecily, and after a while Sophie opened the door. She stood there, in pyjamas, hair up in a bun, a huge band-aid on her cheek and a shy look on her face.

"Oh Sophie," Cecily, already on the verge of tears, said and hugged her friend so tightly it looked like Sophie couldn't breathe. "I'm so sorry for what that bastard did for you, I promise he's going to pay for it, and if I ever see him again I'm so going to kill him."

Sophie hugged Cecily quickly before they separated and she invited the girls in. Tessa felt a bit like she was invading their privacy since Sophie and Cecily were such close close friends and Tessa was..well..not. However, while Sophie and Cecily went to the licing room so Sophie could explain everything again, Tessa went to the kitchen and made some tea for them.

While the water was boiling, Tessa decided to look around in the house – just a bit, she told herself, for it was impolite to walk around in someone else's house like this. Sophie lived in a very cosy tree-house. In the hall, next to the door, was a wardrobe where the family probably held wintercoats, hats, boots and such. The wardrobe had two gliding doors with big mirrors. Beside the wardrobe was a staircase, but Tessa didn't dare to go upstairs. The kitchen was to the left at the end of the hall, next to the staircase, with black and white furniture. From the kitchen one could see the living room, though not all of it; Tessa could hear Sophie and Cecily's voices, but couldn't see them sitting there. Next to the living room, closer to the door, was a big bathroom with a round bath that stood against the wall and – separately from the bath - a shower.

When the tea was ready, Tessa found a tray to put it on and carried it to the living room. Cecily and Sophie both thanked and started drinking the tea.

"So, Tessa, we were thinking, don't you think it'd be so much fun to have a girls' night?" Cecily asked her. "We could have a sleepover at my house, my parents are going away on a business trip so it would be just us, my brother and maybe some of his friends."

"Um, yeah, that does sound quite fun," Tessa said, "although I don't understand why you're asking me." At this, Cecily rolled her eyes playfully.

"Because you're invited. You, me, and Sophie," she said.

"Me?" Tessa asked, a bit incredulous. "Really? Why me?"

"Because I like you," Cecily simply stated. "So, can you come over on Friday at about 6 p.m.?" Tessa smiled brightly, she hadn't had a sleepover in such a long time.

"Yeah, that sounds really fun," she said

The girls continued talking like they had known each other forever, which was surprising to Tessa, because she didn't usually get friends this easily. _Although, is it really a good thing for me to get friends? What if they find out about what Nate does to me?_ She thought to herself. Well, she would just have to suck it up and do everything she could so they wouldn't find out, because there was no way she would lose the two new friends she'd gotten.

 **A/N Thank you for reading this chapter! I know I focused more on the thing with Sophie in this chapter, but I really don't want to rush the storyline. However, I did give you a little piece of Clary there, didn't I? ;) And as you guys can probably see, I love getting into detail when I write about houses, lol. It's just that especially the Herondales' house is a house I would LOVE to move in one day and I that makes me want to write about it. Anyways, and particular POV/event you would like to happen in the next chapter? Put it in the reviews in that case!**

 **Remember to follow, favorite and review!**

 **Xx, V**

 **Ps. I finally have a beta reader, but this chapter isn't proofread because I'm not going to be able to upload for a really long time from now, so I wanted to put this chapter up as soon as possible!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Isabelle POV**

Izzy was walking through the dull halls in school. It wasn't that far in the school year, and she already felt like skipping the whole thing. Although, she was pretty sure she wasn't the only one, judging from everyone else's faces. Luckily, it was Friday, and almost lunch, so she wouldn't have to suffer for long. Just this one hour of social studies and then the suffering would be over – well, only for 45 minutes, but still.

When she entered class, she immediately sat beside Maia and Simon. Isabelle talked to Maia quite often, but not so often to Simon. While they were both quite geeky, Maia was less so, and she was also interested in fashion, so she and Isabelle always had a lot to talk about. Simon, however, was more shy, and didn't talk much, except with the guys and Maia. Occasionally, there would be a funny comment about something when he listened to Isabelle and Maia's discussions, but he never started a conversation himself. It was a pity, Isabelle though, because he was actually a really funny and sweet guy. If she was totally honest, she did have a little crush on him – but it was nothing she would probably ever act on. Isabelle was one of the most popular girls in school, she would admit that, and even though Simon was a football-player and had some friends in the team, he was very introvert and didn't get that much attention due to his geeky-ness. But Isabelle thought he was interesting. He was handsome, had amazing brown hair and eyes and beautiful eyelashes.

"Hey Izzy," Maia said when she sat down in her seat. Simon smiled a little at her, and she smiled back at the two. They started talking about cheer and when the next game would be until the teacher came. However, during the lesson, Isabelle caught Simon looking at her a few times, although he would always look elsewhere when she turned her head.

The thing was, Isabelle liked Simon. And she suspected Simon might have liked her a little bit, too. But Simon was a sweet guy, and Isabelle – well, she was a little bit of a player. Her relationships were never serious, and to be honest, she was scared to have a serious relationship, and that's why her and Simon would never work together.

Izzy sighed and focused on the lesson. Or at least tried to.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Will POV**

The group was sitting in the cafeteria, eating some lunch and talking about the next game, when they saw Clary and Cecily drag a tall person behind them. Tessa, to be exact. When they neared the table Will could hear Tessa saying how she was going to go to the library and didn't know why she was being dragged by the two other girls.

"Tessa, seriously, if you dare to go to the library I _will_ give you a makeover later tonight," Cecily said, and that seemed to shut Tessa up. "You can't rot in the library when we want to talk to you. You know, because that's what _friends_ do," she said, and Tessa gave a little smile at that. Clary sat beside Isabelle while Cecily sat next to Will, with her hand in Tessa's, who sat on her other side.

"Guys, this is Tessa Gray, although most of you probably know her," Cecily said, and most people did indeed recognise Tessa, and either smiled at her or said 'hi', and continued talking in smaller groups. Will took this time to inspect Tessa. She was pretty, he had to admit. She was slender,and taller than most girls with her long legs. Her face was an oval shape surrounded by thick, smooth, wavy brown hair. Her eyes were a steely blue-grey that looked like the kind of storm you enjoyed watching; when you would just sit somewhere, wrapped in a blanket and listen to the rain as it hit the ground. Will knew he was staring, but didn't feel like taking his eyes off her.

He wasn't sure what the girls were talking about, but was pulled out of his reverie when Tessa said something and Cecily playfully elbowed her in the ribs, making Tessa wince and put her hand where the other girl's elbow had been a moment earlier. Tessa grimaced for a short second before her face went back to neutral, but no one seemed to miss the way she looked to be in pain for a short moment.

"Tessa, did I hurt you?" Cecily asked concerned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! But I didn't even elbow you hard.." she trailed off.

"No, Cecily I'm fine, I'm not hurting," Tessa said and smiled, but it didn't really reach her eyes. Clary, especially, looked concerned, but Tessa was quick to change the subject and talk about the cafeteria's food instead.

After a few minutes Tessa said she had to go and left the others, but when she walked away Will couldn't shake off the feeling that something just wasn't right.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV**

Soon after Tessa had left, Clary decided to follow her due to her suspicions. She stood up and mumbled something about going to the bathroom before she hurried after Tessa.

Tessa was walking with her head down, through the hallway, careful not to bump into anyone.

"Tessa!" Clary said loudly, and the taller girl stopped and turned her head. When she saw Clary, she smiled and waited for Clary to reach her. When she did, they started walking down the hallway.

"Hey Clary," she said, "what is it?"

"Did you get hurt?" she bluntly asked. "As in, did someone hurt you?" She saw how Tessa tensed beside her, but continued walking nonetheless.

"No, why would someone hurt me?" Clary guessed that she wasn't being exactly truthful. Maybe Tessa wasn't very good at lying, and when Clary was going through the worst times of her life, she acted like Tessa did; she was afraid of certain topics, such as talking about getting hurt; was wearing certain clothes and walking a certain way so people wouldn't notice her; she was desperate of not getting any attention. She wasn't like that anymore. Instead, she had to suffer the panic attacks that she'd started getting after everything that had happened.

"Tessa, just...if there's anything going on, you can tell me. You can tell any of us, and we won't tell anyone else," she said, concerned. Tessa looked shocked for a moment, but regained her façade. She smiled kindly at Clary.

"Clary, thank you, but there's nothing going on. Really," she said, and sounded so sincere that Clary wasn't really sure if she was lying or not this time. Many people avoided attention the best they could, especially in high school. Maybe Tessa was like that. Clary was probably just imagining things. _Not everyone is like that_ , she told herself. _Calm down and stop being so paranoid._

"Okay, well...bye then," she said, and started walking toward her next lesson.

When she rounded the corner, she saw him. Jace Herondale stood there. Clary hadn't talked to him after her first school day, but she always noticed him when he was near. And when he wasn't looking, she would look at him; his tousled golden-blonde hair, his strong jaw bone and high cheekbones, his liquid-gold eyes. She couldn't find any better way to explain him than beautiful. Although, he was somewhat arrogant, and on top of that, a player. She had seen him flirt with pretty much every girl in school since she'd arrived – which was just over a week ago. Clary now understood the struggle other girls always talked about: how their crushes acted like jerks. But Clary didn't have a crush on him, right? She would never have a crush on anyone. Never.

Of course, her next class – art - she shared with Jace. Luckily, Cecily was in that class too, so it couldn't be too bad. Plus, art was Clary's favorite subject. So she went inside the classroom and sat down in her seat. People started coming into the room, talking with each other. Cecily came last with Jace. She sat down in her seat beside Clary with Jace on her other side, grinning at something. He shared the same smile with his cousins. Although, usually when Jace or Will smiled, there was a mischievous glint in their eyes that Cecily rarely had, even if she was almost as playful as the other two.

"Hey Clary," Cecily said and smiled at her. The talked for a moment before the teacher entered the room.

"Hello everyone, today we're going to start a new project," the teacher said. "You're going to be working in pairs. No one gets to choose their own pairs, so don't bother trying," she added with an apologetic smile. At this, the whole class groaned, except for Clary. She only knew two people in her class, so it didn't really matter who she'd work with. The teacher told them about the project – apparently the theme was 'memories'; the people working in a pair would combine two memories (or more if they wished to), and make some kind of product out of that – and then separated everyone into pairs.

"Helen Blackthorn and Aline Penhallow, Evelyn Highsmith and Liam Whitelaw, Cecily Herondale and Cameron Ashdown, Clarissa Morgenstern and Jace Herondale," Clary tensed. She'd work with _Jace Herondale?_

Well, now she'd have to work really hard so she could avoid having any feelings for him.

Clary turned her head to see if Jace was disappointed. Surprisingly though, he seemed to have a little smile on his face, which made Clary feel relieved. As if sensing her gaze, he turned his head toward her, and she blushed. Cecily, who sat in between them, noticed this and smirked a little.

Once the teacher had divided everyone into pairs, she gave further information about the project. They would have to work outside of school, and they had about a months' time to do the project, which was about fifty percent of the final grade at the end of the year. After they'd gotten all the information, the pairs were allowed to talk and plan the project until the lesson was over. Jace immediately took his chair and moved to Clary's desk, and flashed an oh-so-beautiful grin at her.

"So, do you have any ideas for the project?" Jace asked. "Do you have any preference about whether we work at your or my place? Because it would be easier for me to work at my place if it's on a day when we have practice."

"Yeah, we can work at your place, it really doesn't matter to me," Clarys shrugged. "Do you have any idea on what our final product should be? Like, we could have a simple drawing or a painting, or some kind of collage?"

"Not sure," Jace said and leaned back in his chair. Clary could pretty easily see the muscles through his shirt. "I'm sure we'll figure it though. And we can hopefully borrow all the stuff we need from school."

Clary smiled a little. "I don't think we need to do that," she told him. "My mom's an artist and has every imaginable thing an artist could need, and their quality is much better than the school's. I could ask her if we could borrow some of her stuff." Jace looked a little impressed, then gave her a small smile, and Clary was a bit embarrassed to admit that she felt warm inside when she saw his smile.

"Okay, we'll work at my place then. How often should we work on this?"

"Well, if we only have a month, then maybe twice a week? That way we'll probably be done with the project in time." Jace gave her the classic Herondale-smirk.

"Yes, I understand, you want to spend as much time with me as possible. I can't blame you though, it's just everyone's secret dream, isn't it? To be with me, I mean," he said. Clary was glad, because she managed not to blush at this. Instead, she was able to keep a calm face, even though she was feeling a bit giddy inside. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"You keep telling yourself that and your head won't fit through that door."

"Whatever you say, Ariel, whatever you say," Jace said, and Clary furrowed her brows at him.

"Ariel?" she echoed. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, you know, I promised to come up with a better nickname than 'Red', and since Ariel is also called 'little mermaid' and you're quite small, I figured it would work. I'm guessing no one's ever called you that before?" he asked and raised one eyebrow. Seriously, why was everyone else able to do that but not Clary?

"No, I have to admit that no one has ever called me that before."

"So, I'm special then, right?" he asked, and she smiled at him.

"I guess you are."

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Tessa POV**

Tessa was writing a note to her brother about her not being here the following night, that she had made food for him and it was in the fridge, and so on. She left the note on the kitchen table and went upstairs to grab her bag for the sleepover before Sophie arrived; she was supposed to pick up Tessa and then drive straight to Cecily's.

Even though she wanted to move out as soon as possible, Tessa loved their apartment; it was two-storey, where the walls were white except for the bedrooms and the floor and staircase were a design of light tree, which made the apartment a little cozier. Downstairs was a small hall, a bathroom and a kitchen that was connected to a living room with the dining table. The furniture was mostly black, although the kitchen was white with dark wooden counters and the bathroom was completely white with some sea-blue details.

Tessas room had dark-blue walls instead of white, the color of the sky at night. Along one of the walls was a simple black bookshelf with _a lot_ of books. Other than that, she had a bed with a white bedspread and fairy lights on the wall the bed was against, a dark wooden desk and a closet with a mirror on the door of it. It wasn't anything extraordinary, but Tessa loved it nonetheless.

She hurried downstairs with her bad over her shoulder when she heard a knocking on the door. Sophie stood there, her brown hair in a high ponytail with some black leggings and a burgundy colored sweater on, matching Tessa's outfit, who was wearing pretty much the same thing, except for her sweater was oversized and a deep forest-green color. One thing that had changed in Sophie's appearance from the last time she'd seen her, though, was that she didn't have any band-aid on her cut anymore; it was clear for everyone to see. Tessa was proud of her; she could have covered it up, but had decided not to, and that was brave of her.

"Hey, Tessa," she said and smiled, "ready to go?" she asked, to which Tessa nodded and the went to Sophie's car and drove over to the Herondales' house.

The thing about the Herondales' house that Tessa loved was that it was almost completely surrounded by trees, which gave the house a lot of privacy. She couldn't even see the houses next to their house due to the high amount of trees; she could only see the road and the house on the other side, but even that wasn't too close to their house. Tessa had seen most of the Herondales' house, but apparently they had a library too, which she absolutely _had_ to see.

The two girls had smalltalk while driving, until Sophie asked her a question.

"Tessa, can you be completely honest with me?"

"Yes, of course, why do you ask?" Tessa wondered and Sophie bit her lip.

"Does my scar look hideous? I mean, I think it does, but I need someone else's opinion. It's ugly, isn't it? I look terrifying and –" she started, but Tessa cut her off.

"No, Sophie, don't say that! Honestly Sophie, I swear on my life you're just as beautiful with the scar as you are without it! I get, I would be self-conscious too, but you're going to get used to that scar, and one day I hope you'll realize just how beautiful you really are! The scar doesn't affect your beauty in any way, and your friends and family know that. You're beautiful because you're kind, selfless, courageous, loving and loyal, and in the end, that's what makes you beautiful. And as for your appearance, your scar doesn't affect that either. Because you're so incredibly pretty either way. But honestly, I don't think you're going to love your scar immediately, it's something you have to get used to. But honestly Sophie, your scar isn't ugly, I swear," she said in a pleading voice, as if begging for her to believe her. Sophie smiled at her, a little sadly.

"Thanks Tessa, it means a lot. I'm trying to get used to the scar, but I think I'll be coming to school on Monday, since I don't have to wear the band-aid anymore. I'm scared of what people are going to think, but I just can't let it get to me," she mused. Tessa smiled at her, and then they were in the Herondale driveway, the conversation forgotten. Sophie parked the car and they stepped out of it and made their way to the front door. Tessa knocked and they waited for a while before a tall figure with messy black hair and sweaty workout clothes on opened the door.

"Oh, right, Cecily's sleepover," Will mumbled and briefly locked his eyes with Tessa, who felt like she needed to be closer to him, for some odd reason, when he looked at her. But that moment was quickly over when he turned back and yelled upstairs, "CECY! Sophie and Tessa are here!" After that he turned back and invited them in, and noticed Sophie's scar. He furrowed his brows and asked, "Sophie, what happened? Cecy told me you had a fever?" Sophie looked at Tessa, who nodded encouragingly at her.

"Um, actually...well, long story short," she said in a slightly angry tone, "my boyfriend turned out to be a complete ass and gave me a huge cut on the cheek because I didn't want to be with him and he didn't want anyone else to have me." At first, Will looked shocked, but then grinned and clapped Sophie on the shoulder, half hugging her. Will didn't seem to be the guy who showed much emotion, but in that short moment Tessa could see how Will really did care about Sophie, amongst his other friends.

"You have no idea how proud I am of you," he said, still grinning.

"Wh-what?" Sophie sputtered, confused, while Tessa raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, you just swore. That was the first time I've ever heard you swear. I feel like a proud parent right now," he explained and wiped fake tear from his eye.

"You'd seriously be proud of your child if they started swearing?" Sophie asked, but smiled a little. She looked happy realising at least a few of her friends didn't treat her differently even if she had a scar that, in her own opinion, looked hideous.

"Well of course, I want my children to be total badasses," Will replied nonchalantly. Then Cecily arrived downstairs.

"Oh brother dearest, please don't torture my guests any longer and leave," she said in a dramatic voice, while hopping down the stairs. Will turned to her.

"Oh, but my dear sister, so nice of you to join us," Will said. "Well, actually, I'm going to go now because I need to continue my workout, but after that, I'll come and gossip and paint my nails with you." Cecily smiled.

"Well, actually, I'm guessing we won't be painting any nails because we need to give Tessa a lovely makeover. Imagine sitting four hours in a chair while Sophie and I do you hair..." Tessa could feel the color draining from her face.

"I am _not_ sitting four hours in a chair while you do my makeup, thank you very much!" she said in an almost strict tone, to which Cecily grinned.

"There's going to be a catfight," Will said carefully, "so I take that as my cue to leave." He then winked at Sophie and Tessa and went through the kitchen into the room that apparently led to the private gym the Herondales had.

Sophie and Tessa quickly took off their shoes, jackets and scarves, and then the girls quickly took all the stuff – including a _lot_ of food Cecily had bought.

So there they were, all three girls sitting on the mattresses Cecily had put in her room for Sophie and Tessa, chatting about everything, getting to know each other more – in Tessas case, she learned that Cecily actually hated carrots and that Sophie wanted to become an interior designer when she was older – and eating lots of unhealthy snacks, like chips, pizza, candy, and chocolate that was apparently the best chocolate in the world, Sophie had said – Tessa loathed chocolate and didn't even try it. Cecily had also – obviously – bought them all matching pyjamas, light pink with a dark blue design on.

After a few hours, they decided it was late enough to go to sleep when Cecily accidentally fell asleep with her legs on Sophie's mattress and her upper body on Tessa's. The two other girls had to wake her up gently and she woke up completely dazed, stood up, and immediately collapsed on her bed and fell asleep again. Sophie and Tessa just smiled at each other before getting under their blankets and going to sleep.

Tessa, however, could not fall asleep, and so, after maybe an hour of turning around in her bed, she decided to go get some water for herself.

Tessa got up, as quietly as possible, and tip-toed out of the girls' room, down the stairs and to the kitchen. She searched for a while before finding a glass for herself and pouring some cold water from the fridge. She leaned against the sink while admiring the Herondale household; there weren't any light on inside, but outside was a light on and full moon which both brought some light into the house. The house was beautifully decorated; the windows were big and let through a lot of light during the day, the house was beautifully decorated with a mix of modern and old stuff, and the garden was exceptionally beautiful, though Tessa had only seen it from the window in front of the staircase upstairs.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when a voice spoke.

"Cant sleep?" Will's voice was calm and quiet, not the usual playful and sarcastic it was during the day. Tessa turned to him, surprised since she didn't even hear him coming to the kitchen. But there he stood, leaning against the wall, barefoot with sweatpants and a t-shirt, that showed awfully well the muscles on his arms and shoulder area. Before Tessa would get caught staring though, she looked Will in the eyes.

"No, I've been trying to sleep for the past hour or so, but it's not that easy for me to sleep in other people's houses," she explained, though it wasn't necessarily true. Nate had woken her up so many times in the middle of the night to do something awful that she'd gotten a little scared of falling asleep. Will seemed to believe her, though.

"Come on, I'll show you the library," he said, and Tessa immediately got excited.

"Seriously?!" she whisper-shouted, and Will laughed at her. He walked over to her, took her glass and put it next to the sink and offered his hand to her. Tessa hesitated at first, but eventually took his hand and blushed a little. Will's hand was warm, big and fit perfectly with Tessa's, she thought. Although, she was _not_ supposed to think about that. She couldn't hide the fact that it did feel good, to have someone do these kinds of things. And Will acted so differently now compared to how he'd acted during the day, or at least around people. Tessa knew Will and Jem, who Tessa knew a little bit due to the project they had worked on together in health class, were very close, and she didn't doubt he acted like this around him too. She was sure he was still cocky and sarcastic, because that's just who he was, but he also seemed to be more caring when he wasn't surrounded by people.

They walked through the living room, and Will shouldered open a big, dark wooden door that apparently led to the library. When Tessa got a good look at the room, she gasped, and she could see Will smirking out of the corner of her eye.

The library was a big room with bookshelves surrounding all the walls, except for the door, The big window on the left wall from the door and a fireplace on the opposite end from the window. In between the bookshelves were candelabras with lit candles, and in the center of the room was a dark wooden table with several books on it and three cushioned chairs on either side of the table in the same dark wood and a dark purple on the cushions.

"Do you have _A Tale of Two Cities_ here? Or _Pride and Prejudice_?" Tessa asked curiously. Will, still holding her hand, led her to a section closer to the fireplace, and started searching through the shelves. He let go of Tessa's hand, which she didn't like, for some reason, and picked two books and handed them over to Tessa. Unlike Tessa's copies of the books, the books were still whole and not particularly worn anywhere.

"I'll never understand your obsession with _A Tale of Two Cities_ ," "ill said as they walked over to the table and sat down. "In my opinion, it's such a depressing book," he explained. Tessa made an overreacting shocked look.

"How dare you! It's the best book to ever be written!" Tessa exclaimed. "I'm not going to start explaining why it's such a good book because I'm too tired for that, but do not _ever_ say that again in my presence," she continued threateningly. Will just grinned, and opened a book of his own, and the two of them read in complete silence, in the light of the candles on the table.

 **Will POV**

After the two of them had read for a while, Will looked over to Tessa to see that she was sleeping, with her head in her arms. He looked at the old clock attached to the fireplace. It only consisted of the pointers and the Roman numerals. It was almost three o'clock. Will often stayed up late reading in the library, but today he'd stayed up noticeably later. He was supposed to go to sleep sometime after two, but he'd heard Tessa's footsteps and had decided to show her the library. He usually wouldn't have done that to guests, even if the guest had loved books as much as Will, but something about Tessa made him want to show her the library. Something in her med Will want to get to know her, talk about book with her, and just support her.

Since Will didn't want to wake her up – and perhaps some other reasons, too - he blew out the candles quickly and then carefully picked Tessa up and carried her, bridal style. He couldn't help but take a look at Tessa as he walked. She was very beautiful, he couldn't deny that, with her long, brown hair, oval-shaped face and beautiful, pink lips – when did his eyes wander to her lips? Before ho could look away though, he saw something dark on the left side of her neck. He carefully managed to – a little awkwardly - wipe off the hair on her neck with his thumb. That's when he saw the bruising on her neck. He managed to get the rest of her hair off the other side too, and saw the same thing there. The bruises had been covered by her hair – and probably makeup, too – the whole day, but now, even in the dark, the bruises were visible. Will stopped walking and carefully ran his thumb along the biggest bruise, about as big as a fist, and Tessa whimpered in her sleep, but didn't wake up. Will sighed and continued carrying Tessa to Cecily's room.

After he'd put Tessa down and tucked her in, he carefully closed the door and walked to his own room. He _was_ going to find out where Tessa had gotten the bruises from.

 **I'M SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED! I wasn't excactly happy with how this chapter turned out and that's why I dreaded writing it to the end, and I've also been away. A lot. Anyway, as you can probably see, this story isn't a crossover anymore. I thought that if it's just regular then I'll get more views on the story, and even though that's not the main part about writing, I love getting feedback on my stories or seeing someone has favorited/followed my story.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Xx, V**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Tessa POV**

Tessa woke up to around nine on Saturday morning. At first she started thinking of where she was, before she realised she was in Cecily's bedroom. Although, she couldn't remember falling asleep there. The last thing she remembered was reading in the Herondale library... with Will. _Oh good God, I fell asleep in their library. Did Will carry me upstairs?_ Just the thought of it made a blush rise to Tessa's cheeks. She sat up on the mattress they'd laid out on the floor and looked around. Cecily and Sophie were both still sleeping. Tessa quietly got up and went to the library downstairs. The books were still laid out on the table, so she picked up Great Expectations, went back to Cecily's bedroom to read until the girls woke up.

XxXxXxXxXx

"It was so nice to have you two here. We should do it again sometime," Cecily said when Tessa and Sophie were putting on their jackets and were about to leave Cecily's house. Tessa was a little surprised to say that she'd actually had a lot of fun during the sleepover. Even if the fact that Will had probably carried her upstairs to Cecily's room was an embarrassing one.

"Definitely," Sophie said. "We could have a spa-themed sleepover," she added with a smile. They soon left and Sophie dropped off Tessa at home.

When Tessa stepped inside, she could feel the smell of alchohol inside. People generally disliked the smell of alchohol; it had a suffocating smell to it. Tessa, however, loathed it; she only had bad memories that she could associate with the smell of it. She had vowed to herself to never start drinking like her brother did: to get drunk more than once a week and then do horrible things. Tessa was only thankful her brother didn't use drugs – at least, not that she knew of.

She slowly walked through the apartment to her room, When she passed the kitchen she could see several empty beer bottles on the kitchen counter, and she had no doubt there would be a bottle with something stronger in a cabinet or one of the 'secret' stashes Nate had. She then went past her brother's room; the door was open, and on the messy bed was a passed out Nate. Tessa hesitated for a bit, but then decided to get some painkillers and water that she set on his bedside table. She didn't think he deserved her help, no. But if he was in even a little bit of a better mood when he woke up, then maybe he would take it easy and leave Tessa alone. She still had some marks on her neck from when he'd tried to strangle her the other day; even though he'd been too intoxicated to hold her for long before he lost balance and almost fell face first on the kitchen floor. Tessa sighed and went to her room, and started reading _Wuthering Heights_.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV (Time jump – Monday)**

"Clary!" someone shouted while Clary was walking from biology to the cafeteria, where everyone else probably were already. She turne around, and was pleasantly surprised when she saw Jace half-running towards her, pushing past other people until he was walking beside her. "I was wondering which days we can work on the art project," he said wihile he slowed down to a walking pace. "I have practice every day from Monday to Thursday, and our practices on Tuesdays are longer than the other ones, so I was thinking maybe on mondays and Wednessdays?"

Clary bit her lip. Not Mondays, they wouldn't have enough time to work if Clary had to leave in less than an hour for therapy. Oh joy. "Um," she started, scratching her head, "I don't think we can work on Mondays. Other than that I can work pretty much at any time." Jace looked like he wanted to ask Clary why she couldn't work on Mondays, but decided not to.

"Okay, so how about Wednesday and Friday?" he asked. "Or do you turn into a wild party-animal everyday at six o'clock?" he grinned at her. Clary smiled.

"Wednesday and Friday works for me," she said as they entered the cafeteria and sat by the table. Unfortunately, Jace went to sit between Alec and Jordan, while Clary sat down naxt to Will, who, she noticed, was looking at Tessa intently. Clary snapped her fingers in front of blinked and looked dazed for a second, like he'd just been woken up from a nap, before turning his head toward Clary. The readhead tilted her head to the side and smiled a little.

"Was the famous William Herondale actually staring at a girl? Is he perhaps _intrested_ in a girl?" Clary teased. Will just grinned a little and turned his head to the window, where you could see the school yard with a few big trees that the students apparently liked to sit beneath when it was warm outside. The leaves wre already turning a slight yellow color; some leaves had even fallen already, brown spots in the ground.

Will seemed to be wondering about something, and Clary was about to turn her head and start eating her lunch that she's just gotten from her backpack, when he said quietly, "Intrested may not be the right word. I think _intrigued_ would fit better."

Clary raised her eyebrows. "That's almost the same," she said, while picking up her apple and twisting it in her hands like she was somehow trying to warm it up. "Although, intrigued sounds less... romantic," she winked. Will laughed a little, but quickly turned serious.

"Can I ask you something?"

Clary furrowed her brows. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Do you think there's something up with her? Tessa, that is," he spoke in a quiet voice. "I just feel like she's hiding something, and I'm not sure if it's good or not."

Clary pondered for a bit before answering. "I'm not really sure," she mused. "I haven't been talking to her that much. Although, I may have confronted her in the hall last week," she said. Will raised an eyebrow at her. "I pretty much asked her if anything was up, but she denied it," she explained. Will sighed.

"I just really want to know if something's up," he said with a small frown. Clary smiled internally; it was kind of cute, the way he spoke about her.

"I know, but we don't even know if something's up and you really don't want to make her uncomfortable. Give it some time, I'm sure it's nothing serious," she tried to comfort him, and it seemed to be working pretty well. Soon they were talking about the school, since Clary was still trying to figure out who the tachers were, where her classes were at and which clubs and activities the school had.

XxXxXxXxXx

Jocelyn dropped Clary off at the psychology center. She was glad the center wasn't near school; she was a little bit afraid another student would see her. Her mom stopped the car, took her daughter's hand and squeezed it, and said, "It'll be okay. You have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, I know," Clary mumbled as a response. _But what if this makes things even worse?_ She thought. _What if it's an horrible old lady who will make me relive my worst memories?_ To be completely honest, the thought terrified her. She took a deep breath, opened the car door and walked out stiffly. She could have driven herself here, but when her mom had asked her if she wanted her to drop her off, Clary accepted, because she was honestly feeling so nauseous she couldn't focus on anything, driving the least of all.

Once she had gotten inside the building she was glad it didn't smell like a hopsital; she knew this wasn't excactly one, but somehow she'd expected it to be. It didn't smell like clothes cleaned with cheap laundry cleaning products, or hand sanitizer, or bleach. Instead it smelled kind of flowers – which was explained as Clary stepped further into the building, to a big area with couches and chairs, as well as different magazines on several tables. There was a huge bed of flowers that went along th whole window. _I hope no one gets an allergic reaction from that,_ Clary thought to herself. To her right was a desk with an older-looking man behind it. She walked to the desk, said her name and what she was there for and the man gave her instructions.

Clary walked up the huge stairs that overlooked the hall-area, and upstairs she sat in one of the light-grey couches. She played nervously with her fingers for a few minutes, until a woman in meybe her forties, dressed in white jeans and a light-blue tunic, with eyes like hazel and loose blonde curls that reached her collarbones came from a room farther along the corridor. She smiled slightly and asked: "Are you Clarissa?" Clary just nodded slightly and the woman, who then told her to follow and started walking back towards her room, Clary only a few steps behind her. She held the door open to Clary , who sat down in a fairly comfortable, but a very simple white couch. In front of the couch was a round table that held a laptop on it, and on the other side of the table was another couch, and there was a window that overlooked a small pond in a park. Behind the other couch was a desk with papers an a computer on it. The woman closed the door and sat in front of the laptop in the couch.

"So,you are Clarissa Morgenstern, right?" she asked while taking out a small notepad from the table. Clary squirmed a little when hearing her last name, which obviously didn't go unnoticed by the therapist. "You don't like your name?" she asked, to which Clary nodded. "Is it just your last name, or both first and last name?" she inquired gently.

"I don't like my last name at all," Clary explained, "it's kind of connected to the reason that I'm here, and I've never liked Clarissa. I prefer being called Clary," she finished. The woman nodded, and wrote in her notepad.

"Well, then I'll make sure to call you Clary. My name is Céline, and I'll be your therapist for the next few months, depending on how much these appointments are going to help you and how much progress you're going to make. Although, do not stress about that, because no matter what the result of these appointments is, we will find a way to help you and make sure you can feel comfortable and safe anywhere," Céline explained. "Now, I haven't gotten a lot of information about your situation, because apparently you have a hard time speaking about it, am I right?" she asked, to which Clary only nodded with a slightly nervous expression on her face.

"I have talked about it with my mom about it, but it didn't really help to talk to her so that's why I asked if I could go to therapy," she mumbled.

"Well, the fact that you asked to come here yourself is a really good start. Sometimes when people experience something traumatic, they want to close themselves in a shell and never talk about what happened, but this shows that you are on some level ready to talk about it and not close yourself off, even if that is something you'd prefer to do." Céline smiled at Clary.

They talked for a while about basic facts so Céline could get to know Clary, like how old she was, where she was from, what she liked to do and what she usually did to calm herself down, and Céline also told Clary some bits and pieces about herself, like what she herself did to calm down. At some point Clary had the courage to open up a bit – a very _little_ bit, indeed.

"My mom and I recently moved to New York, because of everything that happened. Someone who I thought I knew so well betrayed us and...he..." Clary struggled to find words. She felt like her mind was telling her it would be better to just be quiet and not say anything, but at the same time it wanted to force her to speak. She took a deep breath and said, "This person started becoming very distant, and after some time it was like we knew somebody entirely else. This person started to do some horrible things, first my mom and the me.." Clary trailed off, unable to speak. Céline nodded calmly.

"You don't need to say anything else, if you don't feel like it. Honestly, I am quite surprised you opened up this much. Could you instead tell me, have these happenings affected you afterwards? Maybe you've gotten more paranoid, had panic attacks or just general anxiety..?"

"Well, at first I couldn't leave my own room for a few days after everything was over. I only left my room if I would eat or go to the toilet, which was approximately once or twice a day. Then I kind of forced myself out of my room when my mom told me we were moving. Finding a house and actually moving took us a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure if I got any better during those weeks. So now I'm way more paranoid than usual, and I also get anxiety a lot more. At first, I also had a lot of panic attacks, but I haven't had one in a few weeks, mostly just major anxiety," Clary explained, while Céline wrote in her notebook. She looked up at Clary, who had a tired expression on her face. She had no idea this could be so tiring.

"Well Clary," Céline started, "do you take any medication for your anxiety?" Clary shook her head. "In that case, I'll prescribe some for you." She wrote again in her notebook – which was a notebook with black, white and gold triangles all over it, and the two of them continued to talk for a while, until the whole session was over. Clary was surprised how good it made her feel to actually talk to someone. She was in a noticeably better mood, which her mom saw, but didn't say anything. For now, it looked like everything – or at least almost everything- would turn out to get better with time.

 **OMG, I'm so so soo sorry I haven't updated in so long! I feel really bad, but even though I know ish how I want this story to go, I have no idea how I should write it or in which order I should reveal every secret etc. This chapter is quite short because I felt so bad about not updating thta I decided to just end the chapter here and upload it. Again I'm really sorry about not updating, but make sure to follow, favourite and review! 3**

 **Xx, V**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Will POV**

"Will! Open the door!" Cecily screamed, while pounding on Wills door like a crazy old man who'd just locked himself out of his apartment by mistake. Will groaned and put his head on his desk. He was desperately trying to finish his homework, but his mind kept wandering off, mostly to Tessa. He tried to focus, but the picture of Tessa always came to his head like a magnet. And Cecily certainly didn't make his studying easier, but he was kind of getting used to it, like how you would get used to a bird always knocking on your window with it's beak from the tree it had just moved onto. This was yet another example of Will's procastination; he's start thinking of weird thing, like comparing Cecily to a bird or wandering around his room, trying to find out how late he could wake up in the morning to still make it to school. Will sighed, his head still on the desk, before he got up and opened the door for Cecily, who swiftly skipped into his room and sat on his bed, lighlty draggind her hands along his sheets to further wrinkle them from the mess they'd been before.

"What is it, Cecy?" Will asked while closing his door and leaning against it, crossing his arms over his chest slowly. Cecily smiled a little, both a mischiveous and slightly nervous smile.

"We're throwing an after-party for homecoming next week."

"What?"

"I said," Cecily said very slowly, as if explaining it to a toddler, "We are thro-"

"I know what you said, just why? Last time someone almost broke that vase mom bought when she was in Nepal. She would have gone crazy Cecy."

"I know. And lucky for us, Isabelle agreed to throw it at her house instead of ours."

"And why do I need to know about this right now?"

"Because you are one of the people who's gonna help us with organizing it."

"Why me? Why not someone else?"

"Well, if it helps, Alec, Jace, Jem, Simon, Clary, Maia, Jordan, and Sophie are also going to help. And maybe Tessa too," Cecily explained while getting a smug smile on her face. Will managed to look calm and only raise and eyebrow. Cecily huffed. "Oh please, even grandma Imogen would see that you're always looking at Tessa. It's impossible to miss, dare I say."

Will took a deep breath. "Alright, I'll help, but I also expect everyone you just mentioned to be there. And I'm not cleaning anything the morning after the party."

"Why the hell wouldn't you do that?" Cecily furrowed her brows. "That's not fair, _Gwilym_ "

"Cecy, last time I actually had to clean puke. And it was one of your friends, Nathalie's, who puked after she walked in on people who'd chrashed the party pretty much having sex in the bathroom."

Cecily shrugged. "Yeah, she was pretty drunk and she's got a pretty sensitive stomach. Besides, she's not really a friend, merely an acquaintance."

Will rolled his eyes at his little sister. "Well, my point is, I'm not cleaning up this time. I'll help organize, I'll be at the party, I'll laugh at you when you have to clean up puke the following morning. Even if it's your own puke you'll be cleaning on you. You deserve some karma." Cecily huffed at her oh-so-loving big brother. Will went to his bed and pushed his little sister of playfully, and she started walking to the door, while turning around at the same time, so she oculd speak with Will while she walked.

"Oh, and by the way, Jace likes Clary," she said with a slight excitment to her voice, as if she was a little girl telling something she liked to think was a secret, but knew that it really wasn't. Will looked confused for a second, and Cecily sighed. "Clary, the new, short, redheaded girl?" Will only shook his head, while thinking about it. Jace liking Clary? Sure, he often started a conversation with her in class, but it was usually just the small bickering thing Jace did with pretty anyone who sat close enough.

"Jace? There's no way Jace likes Clary. Jace doesn't "like" people. He has a finds someone, they make out, maybe have sex, and it's over. Jace of all people would not like someone, especially not someone like Clary," Will stated, and Cecily got a sligthly furious expression on her face.

"Are you saying that Clary's ugly?"

"No, I'm merely stating that she isn't Jace's usual "type". For one, Jace usually dates girls who are easier than Clary. Clary obviously doesn't just fall for Jace like the girls who haven't met me yet do," Will said with a smirk, and Cecily opened her mouth. Before she had a chance to say anything, though, Will continued. "Second, there's an unspoken rule that you don't have flings with people from the friend group, or anyone close to them."

Cecily looked at him for a second, before saying, "Yeah, and that's why Jace actually _likes_ Clary, not just as a potential fling, but actually _like_ likes her."

Will thought about that even after Cecily had left his room – and left his door opened, which really annoyed him – and came to the conclusion that Cecily might have a point, but he would have to see it before he fully believed it.

XxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV**

It was Wednesday afternoon, and Clary was just doing her math homework on the bleachers – or at least trying to. It was usually still warm in New York at this time of the year, but that particular day had been pretty windy, and Clary's fingers wre getting stiff from trying to use the pencil in the cold. Sure she could probably gone inside, except that there really weren't a lot of places to sit; a few benches in the hallways and obviously the cafeteria, but there were different clubs going on, like some club in the cafeteria where the members were figuring out different decorations for homecoming that was being held the following week. Clary didn't have any plans on attending, but Isabelle had hinted about the party earlier on that day, and she had her suspicions the black-haired girl would want Clary to join the party, which just proved that she really didn't know what Clary was like at parties: she was possibly the most boring party-person you could ever meet. She's either just stand awkwardly around her group of friends or alone in some corner, which was probably the worst thing one could do. She's never set a foot on the dancefloor, partly because she didn't want too, and partly because she just had zero skills in dancing.

She was sitting on the bleachers one and a half hour after school because she was supposed to work on the project with Jace today, but he had practice that day. He'd told Clary that she could go home, but since she'd just start procastinating if she went home and tried to do her homework, she'd decided to stay at school and just wait until Jace's practice would be over so he could show the way to his house. However, right now, Clary _really_ thought about going inside and spontaneously join the decoration-club since her fingers were nearly freezing off. She decided to stop focusing on her homework, and instead packed all her stuff in her bag and started watching the boys' training session on the field. She recognised some of them; she spotted Jace and Will, Simon, Alec, Jordan and Jem. There were a few other people Clary knew about: she saw a shirt with _BLACKTHORN_ on the back, so she was pretty sure it was Julian from her art class. Apparently he was together with Emma Carstairs, who was somehow related to Jem, his second cousin or something along the lines. Clary had only seen Emma once or twice though, as she usually hung out with Julian and his brother Mark, along with Cristina Rosales, a really pretty girl from Clary's physics class.

"Morgenstern, is it? Surprised to see you here," she heard a voice from her left. It was Sebastian, who was picking up a ball the boys had thrown near the bleachers.

"Yeah, I'm just wating for the practice to end. Me and Jace are going to work on our art project afterwards." Clary explained, getting slightly uncomfortable by only Sebastians presence. Sebastian didn't look excactly happy when she mentioned Jace, per say, in fact, he looked slightly frustrated at first, but quickly masked it.

"Are you sure you want ot do that? You know, everyone knows Jace can be a huge player sometimes. You probably don't want to hang out with him." This annoyed Clary way more than it should have.

"I know who Jace is, since I have, in fact, talked to him before." Sebastian had an amused look on his face, with the football underneath his arm, but his eyes still held an angry sparkle in them.

"I'm just saying, there are people you'd probably rather hang out with. I could certainly show you a good time," he said with a smug smile. At this point, Clary was pretty disgusted, but also getting really anxious. She tried her best to keep a calm facade.

"In case you didn't hear earlier, I'm going to wokr on a _school_ project with Jace, and even then, I'm pretty sure I'd rather spend time with him than you."

Sebastian didn't even bother hiding his annoyance now, and the expression he had on his face was one that Clary, unfortunately, knew very well. It was a face that scared her way more than it should have. Clary stiffened, and bit her lip. She was just about to apologise to him- although she was not quite sure why – when the coach shouted at him.

"Verlac! You have the speed of a snail going through slime! Hurry up or that ball you're holding will give you a concussion, for God's sake!" Sebastian only looked more annoyed by this, but turned nonetheless away from Clary and started running back towards the field. Will, who was closest to Clary and Sebastian from the field, looked at Clary, as if to see if she was okay, and after nodding to her, he too continued practice.

Clary waited for maybe half an hour or so more before practice was over and started making her way to the parking lot. Jace ran after her. He was pretty sweaty, with some hair strand clinging to his face, and although Clary tried to look at his face, she couldn't help but glance at his torso, where his t-shirt was clinging to him , so you could pretty clearly see some of his muscles. _Just imagine drawing him. Preferably shirtless,_ Clary thought. She blushed slightly at the thought, and as Jace came closer, so he was only a few feet or so from her, she tried to cover the blush with her hair. Jace must've seen her blushing or looking at his torso (or, in worst case, both) because he got a smug smile on his face.

"Like what you see?" he asked in a cocky tone. Clary rolled her eyes at him, and turned away from him so she could walk towards their cars, which happened to be parked almost next to each other.

"In your dreams," Clary said.

"Well, definitely in my dreams, yes, but I think that in real life, too. I don't blame you though, lot's of girls find me attractive," Jace shot back, which made Clary blush even harder. Luckily, they were at their cars at this point, so they each got into their own car, Clary following Jace while he drove towards the Herondales' house.

XxXxXxXxXx

The last part of the way they drove on a little more secluded road. Once they got to Jace's house Clary was in total awe. Yes, she totally loved her house, especially the garden, but Jace's house was something she'd only seen in pictures. It was a really modern, but still cozy, house, with a slightly darker exterior and big windows.

Clary parked her car outside next to Jace's car and got out. They entered the house, and once again, it was beautiful. They went to the kitchen and decided to take a snack before studying. Jace started making toast for himself, but clur only took an apple, claiming that she wasn't hungry, although it was actually just that she felt kind of awkward eating at other people's houses. Well, that depended on the situation, but Clary had only met one of the residents in this house and it felt weird to be eating a lot of their food then. Clary hadn't been like this before, so she had a hunch of where this habit had come from. Nonetheless, Clary felt a little uncomfortable going through their fridge for food, although Jace looked at her like she was crazy, probably because he himself was obviously starving.

After they'd eaten, they went upstairs to Jace's room which was surprisingly clean. "I'm going to take a shower real quick if that's fine?" he asked, to which Clary nodded, so he grabbed a few clothing items and went into the bathroom. Clary took this time to look around the room. It was simple, really: the beed was made, all white sheets. There was a black desk by the window, with nothing but school stuff on it. Then there was a door that was slightly open from when Jace left it just a moment ago; a walk-in closet. There was one shelf with some stuff on. It helf some trophies from football games, as well as three framed pictures. Clary stepped closer to the shelf to look at them: one of them was of a football team, and Clary could spot many familiar faces. She supposed the picture was taken either freshman or sophomore year, although she suspected the latter. The second picture was of a little boy with golden hair – obviously Jace. Clary had to admit that he was adorable when he was younger – as well as two other people, a boy and a girl, both with black hair and violet eyes. Will and Cecily. The last picture was obviously of the two Herondale families: The kids were slightly older now, maybe around the age of twelve or something. Behind them were two men who were clearly brothers; both of them had blonde hair and the same face structure, as well as bright blue eyes. On the left side of one of the men stood a woman who looked incredibly much like Will and Cecily; she also had her hand on a young Cecily's shoulder. On the other side, beside the other man, stood a woman behind Jace, but Clary didn't have any more time to look at her since she heard the bathroom door open. Jace stepped into the bedroom with water dripping from his hair, which made his t-shirt cling onto his shoulders. Clary would've found it attractive if she hadn't felt the guilt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to pry or anything, just look at the pictures," she said while quickly moving over to were she had her bad leaning against the neatly made bed. Jace just looked at her curiously, like he couldn't be sure why she was apologising.

"It's okay, really, those pictures aren't private or anything," he said with a voice as if he was trying to calm down an animal. She sighed and closed her eyes for a second. "You okay?" she heard Jace say, so she took a deep breath, opened her eyes and nodded. There were moments where she would get nervous for almost no reason and then she would feel her anxiety creeping on her, like a spider slowly making it's way up her spine.

"Should we start studying?" she asked, which caused Jace to nod and hopefully forget the short moment when she probably acted like a complete freak.

XxXxXxXx

 **Sophie POV**

Sophie was just lounging at home in some grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt with the superman logo on., eating some spaghetti bolognese her mom had made. Her parents had freaked out when they found out what had happened to their daughter, and immediately filed a police report. The police hadn't found Teddy yet, though. They'd gone to his apartment – he lived alone since he'd left his parents a few years back and broken off all contact with them, so Sophie had never met his parents either. It was confusing, she thought. Teddy had been so charming and seemed so genuine when she first met him, and they'd gotten together very fast. She hadn't noticed it then, but now, afterwards, she could remember small details of their relationship when he wasn't so charming and kind, but more possessive and sometimes even slightly intimidating: how he always got annoyed with Sophie if she talked with any of her male friends, how he needed to know where Sophie went if she wasn't at home after school. He'd yelled at her several times, but he had always clenched his hand into fists, not actually hit her. Sophie also knew he would get drunk a few times, but didn't think much of it since he was two years older than her. She also knew that he'd had a drug problem, but thought he had stopped when they started dating. To her disappointment, though, he hadn't. When the police visited his apartment it had apparently seemed as if he'd left in a hurry; closet doors and drawers were open, everything scattered around. They'd also found a box with some left-overs from his drug- and alcohol collection, along with several packs of tobacco. It surprised Sophie how she hadn't noticed any of these things, although she never went to Teddy's; they always hung out at her place, and her parents were okay with that. Though, one evening not too many days ago, there had been a fight about Teddy, and about how Sophie hadn't "noticed" anything. She understood completely that they were scared for her safety, but it did hurt when they told her to grow up and stop being naive. Especially since they both had trusted Teddy themselves.

Sophie sighed at her thoughts and twisted the spagetti around her fork, where she could see a part of her reflection, the cheek where the cut was. It had healed as much as it could, but there would always remain an ugly, red scar that went from her lip and almost reached her ear. Sometimes she just wanted to cry because of everything, but she didn't let herself do that, mainly because she was never really alone. Of course, sometimes she would be home alone, but never for long since her parents were trying to do more work from home after everything that happened. There was a constant tension in the house though; although Sophie knew her parents loved her, but ever since the fight they hadn't really talked much. Of course they had all apologised after the fight, but Sophie felt as if her parents couldn't really understand her now. Yes, she sounded like a basic teenager, but she wanted to be able to talk openly to someone, who would understand completely. She just wanted someone to hold her and tell her that it would be over soon, someone who could make her stop thinking about the whole incidence for at least a moment. Of course, her friends had helped her a lot. When she'd walked to school on Monday, her friends had been surprised and worried, but they obviously supported her, and if she got any looks in the hallways, the people would be sure to get some glares back from her friends.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when her mom entered the kitchen with Sophie's phone in her hand. "You got a message," she said, and handed Sophie her phone. Sophie took it, checked the text, and froze. "What is it?" her mom asked, looking a little worried. Sophie took a screenshot and told her mom to tell the police, before she showed her the phone. Her mom's mouth opened a little before she took her took her own phone and left the kitchen to call the police.

The text was from an anonymous number. The text read: _Don't miss me too much. I'll be back._

 **homes/for_sale/house_type/2097847654_zpid/4-_beds/3-_baths/1000000-_price/3692-_mp/1000-10000_size/2005-_built/71.031249,-47.504883,37.614231,-141.987305_rect/3_zm/**

 **That's the link to the house I imagine would be Jace's. Of course, you'll have to use your imagination, because the house is actually in New York, though I always Imagine it to be in a more secluded area, like Will's and Cecily's. So there are for example trees around the area,and it's also gated, but still close to other people, so it's kind of like in a really small forest. If the link doesn't work, try googling this:**

 **Emerald Q1 Plan, The Estates at Sugarloaf MountainRavensdale, WA 98051**

 **Then, if it's there, go to zillows webiste to see everything. They've got the best pictures, though other sites work too.**

 **Also, if you haven't already noticed, yes, Clary does have some form of anxiety that she got quite recently. However, I don't really know how anxiety feels as I don't suffer from it, so please tell me if I'm horrible at writing about it, and I'll try to do better :)**

 **And yes, I'm horrible at updating, and I'm terribly sorry. I still need/want requests related to what would happen next in the story, I'm just kinda going with the flow.**

 **Hope you liked this chapter!**

 **Xx, V**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **Will POV**

Him, Cecily, Jace and Jem were driving to school, since everyone had to help in some way to organise the homecoming party. The four of them, along with their friends, had volunteered to help putting up the decorations in the gym. Cecily was blasting some Beyoncé song in the front, while Will bickered to her about changing the music, with the other two sitting in the back, listening to the siblings' bickering.

"How about we talk about something else? I personally think that Cecily's new boyfriend would be an intresting subject to talk about," Jace suggested, which made Will almost hit the brakes so hard the car probaly would have done a flip.

"WHAT?!" He yelled, which made Cecily glare at her cousin.

"He's lying. I don't have a boyfriend. Although, _if_ I did, it would probably be better if you didn't say anything. Because, you know, it's _my_ boyfriend, not yours."

Will huffed. "As if I would let some dirty, selfish scumbag-" he started, but Cecily cut him off.

"Will, I appreciate that you're protective and all, I really do, but last time I had a boyfriend and we went on our first date, when I first saw him, he was completely pale and looked like he'd seen an alien. Just because you had threatened him."

"Well, he also cheated on you later on."

"Do you think I don't know that? Mind you, I was the one who saw him cheating on me," Cecily said bitterly and turned her head to look outside. Will looked quickly at her with a concerned look on his face, and put his hand around her wrist.

"Sorry Cecy," he said. Cecily sighed.

"It's alright, _Gwilym_ ," she answered. Luckily, she didn't sound angry. Then she got a small smile on her face. "By the way, Tessa's coming over today. She's been helping me with my English essay" Will groaned.

"Not again," he muttered, and saw from the mirror that Jace was smiling smugly in the back. Every time Tessa was mentioned, in any way, someone would start a conversation about Will and Tessa together. Also, even though they were mostly in Cecily's room when Tessa was at the Herondale's, Will couldn't really help but sneak a glance at her when he did see her.

"Please tell us more, dear Cecily, Jem and I would like to know about this too," he stated, and Cecily turned towards them with a smile that was identical to Jace's.

"Well, as you both know, Tessa is a very pretty girl, and Will has a major crush on her."

"I do not have a crush on her Cecy, we've been over this," Will complained, but Cecily didn't buy it.

"Oh is that why always ask some small questions about her, like where she has class next and which books she likes? Is that why you always stare at her when she's in the same room as you?"

Will couldn't deny, Cecily had a point. And he did think that Tessa was pretty and intresting. But William Herondale didn't have crushes. No way. Never.

"It's really cute though, how to girls who aren't what either you usually go to, have completely captured your hearts. So romantic," Cecily said while looking Jace straight in the eye. Jace looked confused, although William knew that he always made that face when he didn't want to talk about something.

"What have I done?"

"Nothing really, it's just cute how you seem so _captivated_ by Clary. She is really pretty too though. And she'd probably be good for you too."

"I agree there, you two don't even seem to look at other girls, especially when you're somewhere near them," Jem said with a smile.

"Thanks Jem, " Jace and Will muttered at the same time.

They arrived at school soon after that, and Will couldn't deny, he _was_ excited by seeing Tessa. Talking to her always made him feel better, whether they would be talking about books, opinions on weird things such as fast food places or even school. He parked the car and got out, and the four of them together walked towards the school gym. It was seven o'clock in the evening, and already pretty dark outside, as well as cold. Will shuddered and walked more briskly inside.

Once they entered the gym, everyone else was already there, as well as a few other kids and teachers. Will spotted Tessa standing next to Clary and Isabelle, and walked near her, beside Alec. The teachers started dividing the students into groups and giving them decorations to hand on the walls. Will ended up in the same group as Jace, Tessa and Julian, and they went on to put some decorations up high on the wall, so they also got two ladders to use. Julian and Tessa took one of the ladders, wile Jace and Will got the other one. While Tessa was holding up decorations and climbing up the ladder, Julian held the ladder in place. Will and Jace had to untangle most of their decorations before being able to hang them. They picked out some decorations from a huge box while Tessa was hanging some huge glittery twine on the walls and chatting with Julian. Will didn't get much of their conversation, but he did hear Julian say something like "-not nearly as good as Clary though. She's an amazing artist."

"Hey Jace, you hear that ? They're talking about your little redhead," he smirked. Jace glared at him.

"Watch it Will," he muttered, and then raised his voice. "Hey Tessa! Did you know tha-" but he never got to say the whole sentence since Will caught him in a headlock and was rubbing Jace's scalp. Tessa looked at the two of them, looking confused. Will and Jace started their brotherly fight that they did very often, and ended up rolling on the floor and trying to pin the other one down, until one of the teachers started yelling at them. Both of the boys sat on the floor, grinning at each other, and Jace said, "You got away this time, but next time I'll really tell her," while Will only threatened him back. Some of the students looked at them oddly, although that was because of the fight, since no one, except for Jace and Will, heard what they'd said to each other. Tessa and Clary both had small smiles on their faces, before continuing putting up decorations.

They had been decorating the gym for almost two hours before everything was done. The students starting heading out the door, Will walking behind with Tessa – definitely not on purpose. He noticed Tessa was favoring her right foot a little when she walked, but thought he was just paranoid. "Are you going to homecoming?" he asked her. She shrugged.

"Not sure. I bet someone is going to drag me there anyway – and then probably dump me in the corner while they go off dancing," she joked, and Will smiled.

"Well, if you do come, and that happens, I guarantee you I'll be your knight in shining armor and come find you so you won't be alone. Maybe I'll even get you to the dancefloor," Will flirted back, which made Tessa blush. He liked the color on her cheeks; it made her cute. _Hold up, cute?_ He thought.

"I doubt you'd want to dance with me. I'm not exactly good at it," Tessa mumbled. "Besides, you'll probably be off flirting with some girl you don't even know the name of, am I right?" She asked amused, although Will could swear he heard a bitterness in her voice. He grinned.

"Jealous?"

Tessa huffed. "You wish," she said while they exited the school building.

"Oh, I do, certainly," he continued his flirting, and enjoyed how her blush became more and more visible, even in the darkness of the slightly cold evening. He didn't get an answer, because her phone started ringing at that moment. She checked it and answered while telling him that it was her brother.

"Hey Nate," she said carefully, slowly, as if someone had just woken up from a nap or something. She immediately got tense when the person answered, and Will turned his head a little bit so it necessarily wouldn't seem like he was listening, although he secretely was. He couldn't make out what the other person was saying, but he did hear a voice when her brother – Nate – raised his voice, which also, Will noticed, was when Tessa's shoulders would hunch a bit. Will wanted to take the phone from her and just shove it in a ditch so he couldn't contact her, which struck him as odd – why would he want to do that? Maybe because she seemed kind of scared? No, she wasn't scared, she wouldn't be. Except if she was. What if she was actually scared of her brother? _No, you idiot, why the hell would she be scared of her brother? Get a grip, Will._ "No, Nate, I know but-" Tessa was immediately cut off by her brother. Tessa stopped and closed her eyes, which made Will stop as well. Suddenly, Tessa just took the phone and hung up on her brother, without saying goodbye or anything. She sighed and looked up at Will, who had a questioning look on his face. "I'm sorry, but I really gotta go home," she explained.

Will stood there for a moment as Tessa turned to take a shotcut through the dark school yard. "You're not walking, are you?" He shouted after her. She turned towards him and walked backwards.

"I have to, I don't have a car," she said. In response, Will told her:

"Then come with us, I'll drive you home."

Tessa didn't seem too happy about the idea. "No, it'll be fine, it's not a long walk anyway." She started walking briskly towards the street on the other side of the yard. She didn't even hear Will call her name anymore. Will furrowed his brows in worry, but after a while, he turned to walk towards his car, where Cecily, Jem, and Jace were all waiting with curious looks on their faces. Will just shook his head and shrugged, as if to say he neither had any idea of what just had happened. Probably because he was about as confused as the other three. They drove home in almost complete silence, no one really having the energy to start a conversation.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Tessa POV (TRIGGER WARNING: This scene does touch some not-so-nice subjects, aka alcohol abuse and violence. If you feel like you cannot read that, then skip this part.)**

Her brother had called her. And he was drunk. She knew she should be used to it at this point, but Tessa didn't think she could ever not be terrified by her drunk brother – no matter how many times she would have to deal with. After leaving Will, she made sure to get quickly home.

She passed creepy guys who stared at her for a few seconds – and a few seconds too long, at that. She kept walking faster and faster towards the street she lived on, even went through some of the scariest alleyway until she was running at almost full-speed until she reached the apartment building. She quickly scrambled for her keys and got inside of the building. She totally skipped taking the elevator, and instead, she ran up the stairs, two at a time. When she finally reached the fifth floor, she opened the door with the key she was still holding in her hand. She already knew Nate would be beyond pissed – he usually was, when he didn't know where Tessa was, or when he just was drunk. Tessa had wished her brother would be the type who would be mostly harmless and a little bubbly when he was drunk, but no such luck; Nate had been aggressive for years now, even when he was one hundred persent sober. It only got worse when he drank.

Tessa was hit with the not-so-fresh smell of alcohol the second she opened the door. She closed the door as quietly as possible, although she knew there was no point in that. It was better if Nate got to her now rather than later.

"Nate?" She called out, and although she wished her voice would've been stronger, it certainly wasn't. Only seconds later, she could see Nate half stumbling out of the living room. Tessa's heart started pumping _so_ much faster when he saw him. She already knew what Nate would do. But wasn't she alrrady used to this? At least, she was supposed to be, she thought.

"Tessie. Finally, I've missed you," Nate said incoherently in his drunken haze. "I thought you would have been home earlier. I'm quite dissapointed in you, actually. I was so lonely I opened a bottle of some alcohol, you want some?"

Tessa scoffed, suddenly angry. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Nate, enough. I'm so tired of this. At this point, I'd rather live on the streets than with you. I've never actually done anything to hurt you, to threaten you, to make you want to hurt me. Why can't you just stop? I'm so freaking done with you!"

Raising her voice was definitely _not_ the best way to handle things, because only three seconds later, Nate's face was only inches from her's while his right hand was holding her around her throat, and she couldn't breathe. She felt as if she had something stuck in her throat that didn't allow her to breathe, and she desperately tried to get his hand off her, but even when drunk, her brother was much stronger than her. There weren't many times when Tessa regretted not working out and being at least somewhat strong, but this was definitely one of those moments. After some time, Tessa could feel herself becoming dizzy and disoriented from the lack of oxygen, while Nate's other hand took her by her hips in a hard grip that would definitely leave some marks for her to cover yet again.

Suddenly, Tessa was pushed against the wall, head first. She only saw blurry lines and black spots for a moment, before feeling a sharp pain on the side of her head when Nate kicked her while yelling horrible things to her. The strength, the fury, the bravery Tessa had had for a few moments was now long gone. The only thing she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and have someone to take care of her, but she knew that would never happen. At least, not until anyone knew. But she couldn't tell anyone. She had no idea what would happen, and that thought terrified her. Where would she go, who would abandon her, what would her brother do? Those thoughts were forgotten quickly as she felt her brother kick her in the ribs. Tessa felt as if she was on fire. She could feel the too familiar dakness slowly wanting to consume. Tessa managed to roll from one of her brothers kicks and stand up, but was not prepared for how dizzy she'd be. She quickly took a hold of a small table with a lamp on it to steady herself. When she saw her brother approaching her, she quickly took the lamp from the table and swinged it at her brother. It hit his arm, but the joy – or more like relief – was cut short. There was a small moment of utter silence before Tessa saw the fury in her brother's eyes, a fury she thought she'd never seen before. He took a hold of her her and pulled so hard Tessa lost her balance and was on the floor once again, while he continued to scream at her. This time she caught some parts of his incoherent speech, such as 'how dare you' and 'you useless, pathetic...' followed by words Tessa would rather not repeat in her own head. Nate hit her on hery temple, and the last thing she felt before losing consciousness was a sharp pain in the back of her head from falling.

 **(The triggering part is now over, however, as in other parts of the story, there might/will be parts where violence, assault etc. is mentioned.)**

XxXxXxXxXx

Tessa came to consciousness not long after the hit. She was still in the hall, her jacket and shoes still on, with a broken lamp next to her. Tessa started getting up, and winced as a sudden flash of pain went through her head. She put her hand on her left temple, which she regretted immediately due to the pain it caused. Tessa squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to focus on something else than the pain. She could feel some bits of broken glass underneath her left hand, which she used to lean on. It was eerily quiet, so she assumed that Nate was either asleep somewhere in the apartment - hopefully not her room - or he was out doing God knows what. Tessa shivered at the thought that he was somewhere doing something illegal. She took a few deep breaths in, and out, before she decided to get up. She stood uncertainly on her feet, as if she didn't trust for them to hold her up. She took off her jacket and shoes before deciding to treat the wounds. She dragged one of her hands along the wall as she walked into the living room - and observed that Nate wasn't there, at least -, up the stairs and into the bathroom. She gasped quietly when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She had a bluish-purple bruise on her left temple, from the hit Nate had given her that had also caused her to black out. She also had some bruises and cuts on her shoulders and arms. They weren't too bad, but what surprised Tessa was the bruise on her temple. The odd thing was, Nate had never hit her in the head. He'd said once that if he did, there would be a chance he hit too hard and she had to go to the hospital, and he didn't want to come up with a story.

Tessa groaned and leaned her head in her hands, which where resting by the sink. She could feel tears threatening to escape. _No, you will not cry. You won't cry. Don't cry,_ she told herself over and over again, but even through the thoughts that were running through her head and the pain she was feeling, she could feel a tear escapping from her eye and running down her cheek.

She sighed and took the first-aid kit from cabinet under the sink. She cleaned and treated her wounds, as well as took a painkiller before tiredly going to bed.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV**

It was _finally_ Friday. Event though that meant working on the art collage with Jace, Clary didn't seem to mind. To be honest, she'd quite enjoyed the time they had spent together, even if it was just for a school project. It didn't even annoy Clary that Jace happened to be very cocky...well, at least not most of the time.

She was walking with Tessa and Cecily from gym class. They were talking about something pointless when she noticed a dark blue-slash-purple mark on Tessa's hairline that was mostly covered by makeup. She decided not to ask about it though. Clary couldn't help but notice that her friend looked completely drained, too.

"You seem tired, are you alright?" she asked her. Tessa's head turned towards her. She had dark cirkled underneath her eyes and she walked like she was dragging something heavy.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm okay, I just couldn't sleep last night," she mumbled. Clary squinted her eyes at her, but Tessa just avoided her gaze.

They kept walking for a moment before Tessa suddenly stopped and leaned against a pole, squeezing her eyes shut. Clary put a hand on her shoulders. Tessa wasn't looking to good and seemed to be focusing on her breathing by the way she was slowing down her breathing.

"Tessa? Are you okay?" Cecily asked frantically.

"I...I think I just need to sit down for a moment," she said, so Cecily and Clary led her to a bench close by. They sat down and Tessa put her feet on the bench and leaned her head against her knees. "I'm just a little dizzy, that's all. And nauseous," she mumbled the last part so Clary almost didn't catch it.

"Tessa," Clary started with a slight worry in her tone, "I think we should go to the nurse's office." Tessa didn't seem too fond of the idea.

"No, it's fine, we don't have to do that," Tessa insisted. "Just give me a few minutes, it'll be fine." So they waited, but in Clary's eyes, Tessa didn't seem to get any better. She looked, well, pained; she still had her eyes shut, her mouth in a thin line, her hands squeezing the bench and her skin was a lot paler. After a while she looked like she was going to actually lose consciousness, and the two other girls heard her say: "On second thought, maybe I'll go to the nurse." They were getting a few glances from other people, but none of the girls could focus on that now.

"Thank you," Cecily exhaled. "Come on, I'll help you," she said, standing up, but Tessa lifted her head up and opened her eyes.

"No, you can go to class, I'll be fine," she said.

"Tessa, the nurse's office is on the other side of the building," Clary argued.

"Yeah, and you have class here, and you're going to be late to class if you come with me," Tessa said back. Clary huffed.

"Well, luckily I have class with you now," Cecily said, "and I really don't mind missing some of it, so I'll come with you." Tessa finally gave up and stood up, only to kind of sway a little, so Cecily had to take a hold of her arm. Just then, they heard Jace's voice, and truth be told, Clary probably would have gotten nervous if she hadn't been so worried for Tessa.

"What's going on?" he asked, and all the girls looked around to see Jace and Will walk towards them. Jace looked questioningly at Clary, but Will's eyes were glued to Tessa.

"Tessa? Are you alright? What happened?" he asked in a rushed tone.

"We're not sure, she seemed really tired but insisted that everything was fine, but then she got dizzy and nauseous and..." Clary didn't have a chance to continue, because at that moment came a shriek from Cecily. When Clary lookd back, she was holding an unconscious Tessa in her arms with a panicked look on her face whilst Will rushed to them and took Tessa from Cecily's arms to carry her.

"We have to get her to the nurse's _now_ ," he said. Soon after Cecily and Will with Tessa in his arms rushed down the hall, with people - thankfully - being careful not to bump in them. Clary stared after them for a while before she felt Jace's gentle hand on her arm and let him turn her around. He looked deep into her eyes.

"She's going to be alright, you know that right?" He asked in a low tone. Clary sighed.

"Yeah, I know," she answered with some uncertainity in her voice.

 **Umm...merry Christmas? Happy holidays? Happy new year? I'm** **so** **sorry for not updating! I'm really bad at this stuff lol, so you probably shouldn't expect me to write another chapter in like two weeks, if that's what you do. Anyway, I hope everyone had a very merry christmas (if you celebrate it) and an amazing new year! I honestly can't believe it's 2018, it still feels like I'm in 2017. My 2017 was pretty amazing, and I hope that 2018 will be even better for me and all of you!**

 **BTW, who would you like to read about next? I know this chapter was a lot of Tessa, and there will be in the next chapter too, but would like to read about Sophie? Or Jem? Let me know.**

 **Xx, V**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Tessa POV**

When she came back to consciousness, she felt herself being carried. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times, and the first thing she saw was a frantic Will, who was carrying her somewhere, and quickly. She tried not to blush, but failed miserably. Next, she moved her head a bit from side to side to shake off the feeling of nausea, exhaustion and dizziness, which happened to be a great mistake, because she immediately found herself trying to clutch her head from the intense headache she had. Will seemed to feel the movement of her hand, and looked down at her.

"Tessa," he breathed out, and started walking slightly slower. Next to him, Cecily, who Tessa hadn't noticed yet, turned her head towards her. Tessa smiled weakly at her, who smiled back encouragingly. There seemed to be only very few other students in the hallway, and all of them were giving the trio confused glances, although some of them even seemed to be slightly worried. Tessa, however didn't exactly have the energy to focus on that.

"What happened?" Tessa asked. She couldn't help but feel so incredibly confused. She remembered sitting on the bench and talking to Clary and Cecily, but nothing came to her mind after that. Will looked at her again with a worried look on his face.

"Clary said you haven't been feeling well today, and how you were about to go to the nurse's," Will started, "and then you fainted. We're taking you to the nurse's office now." Tessa did indeed remember dark spots entering her vision back in the other hallway. She nodded, her eyelids starting to feel heavy and her stomach being one big mess, and she was afraid she would throw up if she didn't go unconscious - again.

"Will, you can put me down now," she said but Will only continued walking and Tessa sad his jaw clench slightly. "Will-" she started again, but Will sighed and interrupted her.

"No Tessa, I'm not going to let you walk after what just happened. Besides," he continued, ignoring the glare Tessa sent him, "We're here now." They stopped in front of the nurse's door, and Cecily knocked. Will still didn't let Tessa go, even though they weren't walking, but Tessa had a feeling she wouldn't get Will to let her go so easily, and Tessa was too drained of her energy to either argue or try and somehow jump off his arms. Usually, she absolutely loathed being carried like this, but Will's arms being around her felt good, somehow.

The door opened, and the three of them stepped in. Well only Will and Cecily _stepped_ in, but Tessa also got in, although she didn't, you know, literally _step_ in. She turned her to Will's chest and closed her eyes, feeling too sick to really be embarrassed.

"What happened?" she heard a faint voice ask.

"She was feeling nauseous and dizzy, and she's been tired all day, and she just fainted in the hallway when we were on our way here," Cecily replied.

"Would you put her on the bed, please," the nurse asked. Tessa felt Will move, before he placed her on a bed - that felt more like a bench - and drew his hands away from under her. Tessa opened her eyes and put her hands on the edge of the bed to steady herself. She saw the nurse come closer, but Will didn't back away. Instead, he stood by Tessa even when the nurse checked her eyes, her temperature and some other stuff.

Tessa was so dazed she didn't notice the nurse talking to her. "Sorry, what did you say?" she asked drowsily.

The nurse looked at her in the eyes, an unreadable expression on her face. "I asked you if you've hit you head in the past twenty-four hours or so." Tessa felt like she was thinking about the answer for several hours.

"I...fell down the stairs yesterday and I think I may have been unconscious for a minute or so, but it really wasn't that bad," Tessa lied. She could feel Will's hard gaze on her, and her hands were beginning to sweat from the nervousity that came from his gaze.

The nurse sighed. "I'm afraid you might have a concussion, although I am not quite sure, so I want you to visit the hospital." Her statement made Tessa's eyes go wide, but the nurse didn't see this since she turned to Will. "Do you think you could drive her? Otherwise we'd have to call an ambulance, and I don't know how long that might take."

"Is that really neces-" Tessa started, but Will cut her off.

"I'll drive her," he said. Tessa sighed, but felt grateful nonetheless. If she already had to go to the hospital, she'd rather not make a fuss about it and call an ambulance.

The nurse talked with Cecily and Will a little more, but Tessa wasn't able to pay attention to any of the conversation. She was pulled back to earth, and to the room, when she felt Will tug at her arm.

"Come on," he said softly, looking into her eyes, "I'm taking you to the hospital." He helped Tessa get up, and she held on to his arm to keep herself more steady, to which Will responded with a quick, concerned look at her. The nurse opened the door and they exited when Tessa suddenly noticed that Cecily wasn't with them anymore.

"Where did Cecily go?" she asked, looking around. Will looked at her even more concerned now, but the nurse, who was still holding the door, said:

"Sometimes when some gets a concussion, they have a hard time focusing on anything, even conversations that are happening right next to them," she explained and Will nodded. They continued walking while Will explained.

"The nurse couldn't send both of us with you to the hospital since there wasn't any need for two people to take you, so Cecily had to go back." Tessa smiled at this; she knew Cecily would do anything to get out of her social studies class, but luck didn't seem to be with her this time.

They continued walking, although a little slower than normal as not to hurt Tessa - even if it wasn't her legs the problem was in right then. They got to the parking lot, and Will carefully helped Tessa get in the car before he himself got in. Will started to drive, and during the car drive Tessa couldn't help but close her eyes and try to get at least some sleep. However, she didn't exactly succeed as Will constantly wanted to check that she hadn't fainted.

They finally got to the hospital. Again, Will helped Tessa, and once they were in the hospital Tessa felt a sense of relief. This wasn't school with people running around and yelling and giving her glances. Instead, she was finally at a place where somebody would help her and treat her. She wouldn't have to do that by herself for once.

A nurse came and led Tessa to a doctor's office. She took one glance at Will, who was staring right back at her, before disappearing around the corner.

 **Sophie POV**

The police, after Sophie's mom had called them about the message, had messaged other police stations about the situation and even they had tried to find Teddy, but without any luck. Sophie was scared to leave her house, which meant it was always hard for her to get up and go to school when all she wanted to do was hide in her sheets all day. Anyway, she had gotten a call from Cecily after school asking her if she would come shopping for homecoming dresses, and Sophie, in the heat of the moment, had answered yes, because she loved shopping. Now, however, she didn't know if she would actually be able to go, especially since anyone could spy on them, or hurt them or...

"Sophie?" her mom said entering the room. Sophie looked up at her. She'd gotten most of her looks from her mom; the eys, the hair, the shape of her nose. Her hands though, Sophie had noticed, she had gotten from her father. Soft hands with almond-shaped nails. Her mother had longer and bonier fingers then Sophie and her husband. "Shouldn't you be going to the mall by now?" she asked softly.

"I..." Sophie started, uncertain. "I'm not sure if I want to go anymore," she mumbled, feeling like a little child. Her mother immediately seemed to know what was wrong and came to sit by Sophie on her bed.

"Honey, I know you're scared. I mean, I'm absolutely frightened for you. But the mall is a safe place, and when I think rationally, I know that the chances of something happening to you are minimal, and I don't want you to stop living your life because of him, or because of what happened. So I want you to go to the mall, buy the most beautiful dress you can find, buy it, and wear it to homecoming like the princess you are." Her words of encouragement did make Sophie feel better, but how much? She had no idea.

Sophie sighed. "Fine. I'll go."

So a few hours later Sophie was at the mall with Isabelle, Cecily and Clary, although Clary was supposed to leave soon due to having to work on some art project with Jace.

"Has anyone heard of Tessa?" Cecily asked while the girls were walking between the different racks that held multiple different-colored dresses. Everyone shook their head.

"Can't you ask Will?" Isabelle asked. Cecily shook her head.

"I've called him several times, but he hasn't answered ye-" she was interrupted when her phone rung. She looked at the caller ID and said, "How ironic. It's Will," before answering the call. "Hey, what's up? How's Tessa?" There was a small pause. "Okay, yeah." After that, they had a brief conversation before Cecily ended the call.

"Thank God we already found a dress for you Clary, because Will said he just dropped Tessa and him off at our place and he's driving over here right now," she explained.

"So Tessa's alright?" Clary asked. Cecily shrugged.

"She had a pretty bad concussion, but apparently she managed to tell the doctor that she didn't need to stay at the hospital overnight. The doctor allowed her to go home as long as there was someone with her. Apparently her brother is away for a few days so Will just invited her to our house since my parents are at home either right now. Although I'm not sure if it's wise to leave the two of them alone in the house, if you know what I mean," she said with a smug smile. Sophie scrunched her eyebrows.

"Ugh, don't insert any images to my head Sophie. Besides Tessa has a _concussion_ and I don't think she'd do anything anyway."

"Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed some...tension between them."

"I admit, they would be really good together," Clary said.

"I ship them," Isabelle admitted. "I think Tessa would be good for Will. Besides, just _imagine_ the two of them together. So damn cute!" She said, her voice becoming high-pitched at the end. The others laughed.

"Yeah, I think so too," Sophie said. "But I know someone else here who would look pretty amazing together with a Herondale. Although this Herondale has blonde hair and hazel eyes," she said wiggling her eyebrows at Clary, who turned as red as her hair.

"There is nothing going on between the two of us Sophie," Clary said defensively.

"Oh, I dodn't say there _was_ anything going on, but there definitely could be."

"I agree with Sophie," Isabelle said before Clary could say anything. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. I'm going to go wait for him, he'll probably be here soon. Bye guys," Clary said, smiling and waving at them when she left.

XxXxXxXxXx

When all the girls had found their dresses and shoes (and, in Isabelle's case, lots of new makeup) they decided to go to a café before leaving the mall. Once they were done, Sophie walked with them to the parking lot underneath the mall.

"Um, Sophie, I think you've got a ticket," Isabelle said pointing to her car. Sophie furrowed her brows and got closer.

"That's not a ticket," she said. "It's an envelope." She took it from where it was placed on the window, already dreading what would be inside. She opened it and took several pictures out of it, feeling her blood draining from her face.

Inside the envelope was several pictures taken during that week, all containing Sophie. There were even two pictures that had been taken that day from the mall.

"Oh my God."

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Clary POV**

Her and Jace were sitting on his bed, Jace leaning against the wall at the head of his bed and Clary to his left sitting cross legged, facing him. They had come quite far on the project already, and Clary though it was coming along rather well, although she wasn't sure if she _wanted_ for them to be done quickly - not that they were anywhere near done. Clary couldn't help but steal glances at Jace's gorgeus face. He had high cheekbones that cast some shadows over the hollows of his cheeks, and his jawbones were _very_ sharp. His golden eyes were framed by long lashes that any girl would be jealous of. Clary hadn't even realised that she found these features attractive in a boy, not until she'd seen Jace. Yes, Clary might have been a little attracted to him, but she thought it didn't really matter. Jace could have pretty much any girl he desired, and considering Clary wasn't anything special, she probably wouldn't be the number one on his list.

"Are you staring at me?" Jace mumbled, making Clary come back to earth from her haze. He spoke quietly, as if not wanting to disturb the calm aura in the room. Clary shook her head.

"Sorry, I - I was just-" Jace grinned at her.

"Oh, it's completely alright, you know. You're not the first person to do that." Clary huffed at him.

"I was just artistically admiring your face structure. Any artist would love to draw you," she said. Jace sat up more straight and turned so he was right in front of her.

"Do you want to draw me?" he asked with his voice low. Clary gulped.

"Of course I would, but I like to draw a lot of people," she lied. She didn't actually draw other people's faces often. She felt Jace's hot breath on her face, and only then did she realise just how close they were. If she would lean just a little bit forward, their lips would touch and she could kiss him. His eyes dropped to her lips before looking in her eyes again...

And her phone rang. Clary internally groaned. She turned to take her phone, but not before seeing an almost disappointed look on Jace's face.

"Hey mom," she said into the phone.

"Hey honey, where are you?"

"I'm at a friends house. We're working on an art project together," Clary answered, suddenly having a feeling of slight sadness go through her that she couldn't exactly explain, but that she knew had something to do with Jace.

"At nine in the evening?" her mom asked. Clary looked at the clock. She hadn't realised it was so late already. "Is there something going Clary?" Jocelyn asked in her mom voice.

"No mom, I'm sorry, we didn't realise it was so late," she said, which caused Jace to look at the clock too. "I'll be home soon, okay? Bye mom," Clary said ending the call. She sighed, and started packing her bag. "I'm sorry, I need to go, otherwise my mom will start freaking out over me staying away this late." Jace smiled at her and helped her pack her bag.

"It's okay, I should have checked the time. Come, I'll follow you downstairs," he said, getting up from the bed and giving his hand to Clary so she could get up too, but didn't let go once she was standing. To be fair though, Clary made no indication to let go either. Once they got to the door, Clary said goodnight to Jace, walked to her car and started driving home with the feeling of Jace's hand in her mind.

 **Some Wessa and Clace for you guys. Also, the Lightwood brothers will be introduced soon, although not in the next chapter (perhaps the chapter after that). Anyways, do you have any suggestions as to what should happen in the story?**

 **Also, I was supposed to port this chapter a few days ago, but I wasn't able to upload the document to the Doc Manager! Did anyone else have problems with this? I googled it, and it seemed like a lot of people weren't able to do that. Well, at least it's here now!**

 **Btw, I only have two tests and one presentation left before everything's over (for now)! But in two weeks we have a one week long break from school and I'm going on a skiing camp, but were not allowed to have phones or anything there, and I won't be home so I won't be able to write then, which means that next chapter might be up next month (hoping that I won't start procastinating).**

 **Thanks for reading this chapter!**

 **Xx, V**


End file.
